


How To Train Your Vigilante

by AlexiaBlackbriar13



Series: Olicity AU Series [7]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012), How to Train Your Dragon (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - How to Train Your Dragon Fusion, Alternate Universe - Shapeshifters, Angst, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Fantasy, Felicity Smoak as Hiccup, Fluff, Gen, He's like an adorable doting little puppy, Hurt/Comfort, I have forever tainted my search history, Lance and Donna are a couple, Laurel and Tommy are engaged, Literally come for the Olicity and stay for the cuteness, Night Fury, Olicity endgame, Oliver Queen as Toothless, Oliver has PTSD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Protective Oliver, Shapeshifting, Slow Burn Olicity, Swearing, This is NOT bestiality, Tommy and Thea are openly half-siblings, in any shape or form, oliver is so cute
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-27
Updated: 2016-12-22
Packaged: 2018-05-16 10:58:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 7
Words: 48,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5825932
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlexiaBlackbriar13/pseuds/AlexiaBlackbriar13
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <i>A dark sleek shadow was crossing the road only a few metres in front of her, and as she turned onto the street the shadow itself went still, turning lustrous bright blue eyes on her.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>“Oh, I am so dead,” Felicity muttered to herself when the shadow smoothly moved under the light of a street lamp, keeping its luminous cobalt orbs fixed on her, revealing two massive black wings and a tail whipping from side to side.</i>
</p><hr/><p>In a world where dragons exist, Felicity Smoak considers herself to be a normal if not slightly nerdy IT girl, with complicated family issues, a fascination with the winged predators and a slight ‘saving people’ complex. Her entire world changes when she meets Oliver, the infamous deadly Night Fury, who flies around Starling City taking down criminals.</p><p>
  <b>~ Part 6 ~ Updated ~ 22nd Dec 2016 ~ Happy Holidays!</b>
</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> HAPPY BIRTHDAY GENIEIWITHWIFI! *releases balloons and watches sadly as they float away* *accidentally burns your cake* *is an utter fail at everything birthday related but you know, whatever*
> 
> This has got to be one of the weirdest things I have ever written, but also one of the best things. I love this so much, you don't even know. I hope you love it too. Thanks to all my Tumblr friends who have supported me through writing this. It started out as a one-shot that then veered sharply into a WIP multi-chapter. Never have they lost support in me. Love you all.
> 
> Biggest thanks to my friend Nicole and ironyruinedmylife who cheerleaded me and beta'd this for me. Nicole is my senpai and ironyruinedmylife is my trash friend. Without them, this wouldn't be ready to post so... :D
> 
> Please leave kudos, comment etc :) Will be greatly appreciated.

* * *

_This, is Starling City._

_It’s located 600 miles from Central City and it’s one of the most major cities in the United States. It’s rife with poverty, crime and corruption and has a population of 576,000 that’s constantly decreasing because of terrorist attacks but whatever, it’s home._

_My city. In a word… uh, a little bit broken. One half of the city’s business heaven, with Queen Consolidated and Merlyn Global bringing in enough income to stop the rest of the economy collapsing into the dust, but the other half of the city, the Glades, could be described as ramshackle, condemned… it’s a little worse for wear. Not to mention the not so pleasant activities going on…_

_We have gang activity, drug dealing, human trafficking, some sketchy organisations that could count as mobs, and some corperate executives that really shouldn’t be trusted with anything, not even a hamster, but overall, the city’s okay. Well, not too bad anyway. But then again, that’s not even beginning to get into the other problem we’re currently facing, which could be considered an invasion of another species._

_Dragons._

_Most people would leave. Run away. Hole themselves up in safe little bunkers on the other side of the country and leave the experts to get rid of them, while eating chocolate, drinking mimosas and binge-watching Game of Thrones while waiting to return to a dragon-free city. No. Not us._

_We Starling City residents have stubbornness issues._

_My name’s Felicity. It means ‘happiness’, deriving from the Latin word which means ‘luck’ and ‘good fortune’, which is ironic because I’m probably one of the unluckiest people on the planet. ‘Felicity’ also refers to the ability to find appropriate expression for one's thoughts, which is not exactly something I’m particularly good at._

_But anyway, you probably didn’t want or need to know that. No, what you’re here for is my story. I guess it could be argued that it’s not my story though. Not entirely. No, there’s somebody else involved too. It’s quite long and complicated, so do try and keep up._

_This is story of Oliver. He’s the best friend I’ve always wanted; I would protect him with my life and I wouldn’t trade him for anything. Ever since he arrived, my life has changed almost completely, but not in a bad way. He’s changed my life, and so many others, for the better. I don’t know what I would do without him. He’s remarkable._

_He’s also the local vigilante dragon that flies around fighting crime and saving people with me._

_And how does he relate to me and my story, you ask? Brace yourself, my friend. You know I told you it gets long and complicated? This is where it kicks in._

_I’m his rider._

* * *


	2. ~ Part 1 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 1:**  
>  \- Learn about the vigilante dragon you are going to train.  
> \- Research said dragon by not-so-legal means, and begin the viewing/interviews of possible candidates for Team Dragons.  
> \- As soon as possible, try to arrange a confrontation with the dragon, or accidentally bump into him when getting milk, if suitable.  
> \- Put others off your dragon's scent to stake your claim.  
> \- If problems arise, start contemplating solutions (e.g. injuries should be accounted for and health care or other necessary care should be administered).  
> \- Begin the process of earning and exchanging trust with your dragon (hint: feeding, talking to him and contact advised).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Greetings, one and all. Hope everybody enjoyed Arrow last night if you watched it. I sure did. Here we are. Part 1 of our hopefully grand, epic adventure. Thanks to everybody who has been so supportive and lovely, on Tumblr and in the comments, and thanks to everybody who left kudos, bookmarked and subscribed. Appreciate it.
> 
> Geniewithwifi, I hope you enjoyed your birthday. Here is something to add to it :)
> 
> Still a WIP... I might be a little obsessed with this 'verse. Unfortunately I will not be posting Part 2 for another two weeks due to a trip to Switzerland to CERN, but I hope you enjoy this. Thank you once again to my amazing friend Nicole and my other amazing smol bean friend ironyruinedmylife, who always are prepared to let me rant about Arrow, even when they both don't watch it. Thanks also to bushlaboo - _I know you're there! Say hi to the crowd!_ \- who has been awesome on Twitter lately. And of course how could I forget my awesome promotions manager and illustrator, who has been making some incredible edits and promo images for the fic for me to post on Tumblr.
> 
> Please leave kudos and comments... It really motivates me to write, and when you have a constant stream of exams, it really helps keep you happy and content with life in general. :)

* * *

“Okay, so what you’re telling me is that there’s a dragon flying around Starling City, killing criminals and evading the police?”

Felicity threw some more popcorn into the air so she could catch it in her mouth and epically failed, the popcorn ending up half down her top and half on the floor. She shot her best friend Tanya a scathing, disbelieving look as she grabbed more popcorn, slathering her hand in warm salty butter. Her bare feet were up on the coffee table as they sat next to each other on Felicity’s apartments’ couch, both in pyjamas as they binge-watched the new series of Doctor Who.

“You do realise how insane that sounds, right?” Felicity continued. “And coming from me, that’s really saying something.”

“It’s _true_!” Tanya insisted, grabbing the popcorn bowl away from her to take a handful herself. “It’s all over the news, ‘Lis! How can you have missed it? It’s been like the top news item for days.”

“Nah, I’m sorry,” Felicity shook her head, flicking her loose blonde hair behind her shoulder as she turned back to the TV screen. “Don’t believe you.”

Tanya narrowed her eyes, grabbed the remote and switched the TV off. Felicity gasped, crying out, ‘ _Sacrilege!_ ’ and turned to scowl at her best friend as Tanya replied determinedly, “Oh, it’s on,” and pulled out her own tablet, tapping away swiftly.

Felicity rolled her eyes but allowed her to get it over with - Tanya worked in the marketing department at Queen Consolidated but before that, she had been a journalist, so when she put her mind to something, there was no point trying to stop her. After a few minutes, Tanya stuck her tongue out in concentration before her face lit up and she passed her tablet over to Felicity, who took it with a raised eyebrow.

“Get a load of _that_ ,” Tanya said smugly. Felicity flicked through the article, biting her lip when she reached the police sketch at the bottom with the tip-line number.

Dragons existed. Sure, they were rare creatures, but only as rare as other predators, like tigers and snow leopards. They just happened to be massive, winged lizards that breathed fire. Children were taught about them from a young age just as children were taught about lions and snakes; about the different species, characteristics and the dangers they posed. Dragons were said to be untamable animals, so any that were spotted too close to human civilisations were reported to the International Dragon Conversation Organisation, the IDCO, who swooped in, tranquilised them and moved them to secure natural habitats around the globe. It seemed, though, this time the IDCO were struggling.

It was a species Felicity hadn’t heard of before, and considering she had been absolutely fascinated by dragons since the age of seven, that was saying something. The adult male Night Fury, estimated to be about 28 feet in length, 7 feet in height with a 50 foot wingspan, was one of the medium-sized dragons roaming the earth, but if the information in the article was correct, the most lethal, agile, intelligent, and fastest and strongest dragons to be discovered. With sleek jet blackish and dark scales, small, smooth spines and large, bat-like wings, the Night Fury resembled a panther, and due to the colour of him, Felicity wasn’t surprised when the article claimed that no pictures nor videos had been able to be taken as the dragon operated sorely during the night, when he was most hidden by the darkness.

“Believe me now?”

Felicity glanced up at her smirking best friend and finally nodded in defeat. “Yeah, I believe you,” before gazing back down at the rough sketch. Her chest tightened when looking at the picture - the powerful, deadly creature was clearly not done justice on paper. “Wonder why they haven’t been able to catch him yet.”

“Well, ask your step-dad.”

Felicity’s head snapped up. “Quentin _isn’t_ my step-dad, Tan.”

“He’s dating your mom, they’re pretty much engaged, he just hasn't got the guts to pop the question - okay, he may not be your step-dad now, but he’s gonna be in the future, right? They’re a serious couple,” Tanya mused, taking back her tablet and tucking it back into her bag. “I bet you’ll have two step-sisters and a step-dad by the end of the year.”

Felicity leant over her to grope for the TV remote, which once she grabbed she turned the TV back on and their episode of Doctor Who resumed. “Hmm. I suppose. But I don't think I'll be joining in at any family dinners. I don’t think Laurel likes me very much.”

“You know her fiance, right?”

“Tommy Merlyn,” Felicity laughed. She sobered as she remembered the hell that had been two weeks ago with the press. “Yeah, I know him. Kind of feel sorry for him at the moment, though, if you know what I mean, with all that discovering Thea Queen was his half-sister and stuff. Must’ve been a real shock to them.”

Tanya shrugged. “I think anybody would be surprised if it turned out that they had a half-sister.”

“You know, I always thought Thea Queen had an older brother for some reason.”

Tanya snapped her fingers. “No, everybody thought that for a while! I remember, she was like eleven or something and was getting pushed around in school by some kids who wanted her money, she stood up to them and yelled that her big brother was going to kill them if they hurt her and a school teacher heard and wanted to get some big bucks, so leaked it to the press. Queen made up a whole story about it, name, age, personality and everything; basically pretended she had a brother for like a year. Then her mom found out just after that boat accident that killed Robert Queen and was furious, put an end to it.”

“Whoa. Talk about complicated,” Felicity muttered. She pretended to yawn. “Better get some sleep, we both have work tomorrow.” Okay, so really she wanted to grab her laptop and do some not so legal digging into government and police databases about the the Starling City dragon, but she wasn’t going to admit that.

Tanya stood and stretched, swiping her bag and car keys as she massaged a cramp out of her leg after being stationary for so long on the couch. “Right, I get what you’re saying. I have a meeting with Mr Steele about some Channel 52 contract thing at nine. See you tomorrow, ‘Lis.” She gave her a playful nudge and pressed a kiss to her forehead despite Felicity’s whacking on her arm to stop and departed with a grin.

As soon as her friend was gone, Felicity sprinted to her laptop and quickly hacked into the police servers, scanning through the information about the Night Fury.

_The rarest and most intelligent of the dragon species, the Night Fury is distinguished by its dark colour and piercing blue eyes, as well as its smaller size, heavy chest and short neck. Possessing the largest wing-to-body ratio of all known dragons, it can fly higher, faster and longer than any dragon, and its incredible power-to-weight ratio renders it capable of vertical takeoff. Its unconventional fire (a semi-solid mass alight with a lilac acetylene and oxygen flame) explodes its target on impact._

_Its signature attack mode is executed after sundown and from high altitude -- wrapped in its wings, it dives like a bullet, pulling up at the last moment to deliver one precise and explosive burst... then vanishing back into the darkness. So far the death toll by this particular adult male has amounted to over two dozen since his arrival in Starling. The only warning is the ballistic noise the diving Night Fury makes. Its kamikaze attack, along with its cautious behavior and analytical mind, makes the Night Fury a devastating opponent with an extraordinary success rate._

_To date, no Night Fury has ever been brought down. It is estimated that if this adult male located in Starling City is not brought down within the next month, the death count will rise into the the low fifties and sixties. Due to the rarity of this species, the IDCO are reluctant to have the dragon euthanised, however, after the death toll has passed 45, the government has reached the agreement that the dragon will be put down for the safety of the public._

Felicity raised her head as an indescribable feeling passed over her and her heart sank.

Shit.

She had to save this dragon.

* * *

Felicity was doing some more not so legal research into the Night Fury species in her Queen Consolidated IT office cubicle when her cell phone rang, startling her so much that she actually flailed and fell out of her chair, scrambling to pull herself back up onto it and pick up the phone to check the Caller ID. She rolled her eyes as Tommy Merlyn flashed up at her and for a brief moment considered not answering, but then she gave in and accepted the call.

“What do you want, Tommy? I’m busy and at work, I don’t have time for your… shenanigans.”

“ _Shenanigans?_ ” came the insulted reply.

“You know exactly what I mean, Merlyn. Now what do you want?”

“ _Why do you always assume I want something, Smoaky? Can’t I call up my favourite IT girl just to say hi?_ ”

“This is you we’re talking about,” Felicity responded, straightening her keyboard as her flailing had knocked it out of position and fiddling with her glasses, frowning as she realised she had accidentally spilt water all over her notebook, in which she had been taking notes on Night Furies. “You don’t just randomly decide to call people up just to say hello. You either want a favour, an excuse for an escape from some fancy event or you’re trying to get laid. Trying being the key word, because you always fail.”

“ _I take serious offence to that, I don’t always fail… okay, so I mostly always fail._ ”

Felicity continued like Tommy hadn’t even cut in, saying tiredly as she desperately tried to save her notebook, which was now sopping wet, “So what do you want? If this is about my opinion on Laurel’s engagement ring again -”

“ _No, after the tenth time you said no to going shopping with me, I figured that you were serious,_ ” Tommy replied. “ _Okay, so you remember the first time we met? I walked in on you eating that massive burger and stole your fries and you helped me with that computer problem -_ ”

“ - Oh, you mean the computer problem where your laptop was infected with porn viruses?” Felicity scoffed. She started mopping up the water with some paper towels but it smudged the ink of her notebook. “Dammit. So what, need me to clean it up again? Because you do realise this would be the fourth time and -”

“ _Actually, it’s not me who needs your help._ ”

Felicity paused. “Okay, if that was some starting line where you’re next going to try and convince me to go and sleep with one of your billionaire friends, if you even have any -”

“ _No! No, there’s - it’s not that. It’s - er… The person who needs your help, well, who I think could use your help…_ ” There was a static sigh and then Tommy admitted in a smaller voice, “ _It’s my little sister._ ”

Felicity halted in her mopping up and put the drenched paper towels down on her desk. Tommy had never, in all of their conversations, brought up his family. There was some sort of silent agreement between them that they wouldn’t discuss their messed up family issues unless they had to; Tommy wouldn’t bring up Donna and Quentin without reason, and Felicity wouldn’t bring up Laurel and Malcolm. That had, after the hounding the Merlyns and Queens experienced by the paparazzi after the siblingship between Thea and Tommy had been exposed, extended to the Queen family.

“Thea Queen needs my help?” she asked confusedly.

“ _It’s computer related._ ”

“I figured.”

“ _She’ll explain. She’s spending the day with Walter so he’ll probably be sending her down any minute now._ ” There was clattering in the background and Malcolm’s angry voice. “ _Shit. Look, Smoaky, I gotta go, but please just help my sister out and I swear, I’ll owe you for like forever._ ”

“Okay, calling on that favour now, I don’t want to be seated next to Quentin or my mom when it comes to your wedding.”

“ _Done. Catch you later._ ”

Felicity had just put her phone down, dropped the wet paper towels in the trash and put her favourite pen in her mouth in concentration as she tried to decide whether or not her notes were a lost cause or not when there was a hesitant knock on her cubicle door. She glanced up and gave a friendly smile when she recognised Thea Queen cautiously, nervously waiting at the door, looking extremely out of her element. Her brunette hair had been cut shorter so it was just hanging below her shoulders and she was wearing casual clothes, a pair of smart jeans and a t-shirt, albeit a t-shirt that probably cost more than Felicity’s monthy salary.

“Sorry, if you’re busy, I can come back later,” Thea mumbled.

“No, it’s fine,” Felicity replied kindly. The poor girl was probably nervous. Having your half-brother send you to a person you didn’t know for help must have been daunting. “You can come in if you want. Well, of course that’s what you want, you’re kind of waiting at my door, which, you know, points to you wanting to come in, so - so you can come in.” Dammit, she hadn’t even met the girl for ten seconds and she was already making a fool out of herself. “I’m so sorry. I just can’t seem to keep my mouth shut sometimes. The words just come out uncontrollably and I’ve been told I have no brain-to-mouth filter.”

Thea cracked a small smile at her babbling and Felicity mentally punched the air in triumph. “Felicity Smoak? I’m Thea Queen,” the seventeen year old offered.

Felicity nodded at the seat in front of her desk, quickly tidying it so she didn’t look like too much of a clutz as she agreed, “Yes, I know who you are, you're Tommy’s sister, Miss Queen.”

Thea grimaced as she sat. “Er, no. No, seriously, please just… Thea. My dad was the only person who insisted I be called Miss Queen.”

“Right, but he's dead.” Felicity’s eyes shot open wide and she tried to force herself to shut up, but her mouth kept on moving. “I mean, he drowned. Well, Robert Queen did, Malcolm Merlyn, your biological - But you obviously didn't need to be reminded of that, and you did not come down to the IT department to have me talk at you about your family issues and listen to me babble.” She swallowed. “Which will end. In 3, 2... 1.”

She figured she had just blown whatever chance she had with the young Queen, but to her surprise, there was an even bigger smile on Thea’s face, and her tense shoulders had relaxed slightly. The awkward atmosphere had been broken, it seemed, by Felicity’s inappropriate word vomit.

“I'm, um, having some trouble with my laptop and Tommy and Walter told me that you were the person to come and see about it.” She reached into the bag she had brought with her to pull the Apple Macbook out and set it on Felicity’s desk. “I was working on an English project for school and it kind of just died on me, and when it turned back on I couldn’t find my work anymore…”

“You have definitely come to the right place,” Felicity promised her. Within three minutes, she had the files safely recovered, Thea pressed into her side as she searched, found and safely saved them on the laptop’s desktop. “Your hard drive’s almost completely blown, I can arrange the delivery of a new one for you if you want.”

“Oh, no, you really don’t have to…”

“I want to,” Felicity replied, making a few adjustments and creating a shortcut folder that would automatically fill with any files opened within the week if the laptop crashed and burned once again. “Seriously, the sluggishness of this thing hurts me in my soul. You need to let me do this, if not for your baby’s sake, then for mine.”

“... 'my baby'?” Thea repeated, amused.

“Oh, I, er, I meant your laptop. Sorry. I forget occasionally that people aren’t as attached to technology as I am.” Very much accidentally, Felicity clicked on the file and it opened on a word document for a half finished newspaper article. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to do that, I’ll just -” She stopped, frowning as she read the beginning of it. “You’re writing an article on the Starling City Night Fury?”

Thea attempted to reach forwards and slam the screen shut, now blushing in embarrassment, stuttering, “It’s an English thing, we’re meant to take a current news story and write about it ourselves and… well, I’ve always really liked dragons and I just…”

“Me too,” Felicity said. Thea glanced at her in shock when the blonde IT girl confessed. Felicity didn’t break eye contact with the young Queen as she continued, “I’ve been fascinated by them since I was little. I’m actually doing a little digging into this new dragon myself, if you want any help with your article.”

Thea narrowed her eyes at her and her suspicion cut like razors into Felicity, making her shrink back a little slightly. That look was honestly quite scary. “What do you want?” Thea asked bluntly.

Felicity’s heart panged. Did this young girl seriously think that her offer to help her with her homework was a way for her to get money off her, or bribe her for something? Her utter sadness at the fact was soon replaced with anger as she realised that Thea had probably experienced something like that in the past, which was why she was so defensive about it. Very slowly, she turned to completely face Thea and gave her a serious look.

“I don’t want anything. Well, I want to help you. But that’s not a bad thing, is it?” At Thea’s silence, Felicity said softly, “I don’t need money or anything, Thea, honestly. I just want to help you.”

Thea raised one eyebrow, but her eyes were emotionless as she said flatly, “Everybody wants money.”

“Well, I don’t. And I don’t need it to be honest. I’m raking in a massive bonus next month because I’m building laptops for all the executives on the board. But you didn’t need to know that. And I probably shouldn’t have told you that.” Seeing how Thea still looked unsure, Felicity sighed. “Really, Thea, I just want to help. I don’t want any payment or anything. And we’re technically family, and family help each other out, yeah?”

Thea looked bewildered. “Family?”

“You’re my future step-sister’s fiance’s half-sister,” Felicity informed her, a grin breaking out over her face.

Recognition dawned. “You’re Laurel’s dad’s girlfriend’s daughter.” Thea burst out laughing. “Oh god, that’s so weird.” Her cell phone beeped and she glanced down at it. “Oh, sorry, that’s Walter… he wants me in his office in ten minutes.”

“Oh, trust me, I know how weird it is,” Felicity smiled. She handed back Thea’s laptop and stood to follow her to the door. “Oh, wait -” She ran back and scribbled down her cell number and passed it over. “Here. My number. You ever want to talk, or text or want help with that article, contact me.”

Thea nodded with a smile and made to leave. Felicity turned back to sit back down in her chair behind her set-up, but then Thea called her name again and this time the young girl looked a little vulnerable and confused. “Can I… Can I ask you something?”

“Well, technically you just did…” She shook herself with a sigh. “Sorry. Sure. Go ahead.”

Thea hesitated before rushing out, “Why haven’t you asked me about it?”

Felicity just blinked. “... about what?”

Inhaling sharply, Thea carried on in a smaller voice, “About me making up that I had a brother? Because everybody does, despite the fact it was like five, six years ago, but they want to know why I wanted the attention and why I said it and kept it going and…” She looked genuinely upset.

Felicity’s heart burst for the young Queen. She strode forward and set her hands on Thea’s shoulders, telling her firmly, “I didn’t need to ask why you did it, Thea.” She bit her lip. “I was bullied really badly in school as well. I made up that my father was a secret CIA agent that would whip their asses if they ever laid a hand on me, despite the fact that I hadn’t seen him since I was seven.” She shook her head. “So you don’t need to explain it to me. I completely understand why you did.”

“You do?”

“Of course. And honestly, the fact that you felt like you needed to do it in the first place, needed to make up a brother to protect yourself from bullies because nobody stepped it to stop it… that speaks for itself. All the criticism you’ve been receiving for it is undeserved.”

Thea’s eyes were brimming with tears. “Nobody’s ever said that to me before,” she whispered. “They all just said I was an attention seeking brat.”

“Well then I was an attention seeking brat too.” Felicity squeezed her shoulders. “What was your brother’s name? I never knew my dad’s name because my mom would never talk about him, so I made it up. My dad was called Lancelot Smoak because I thought it sounded cool, like he was a knight of King Arthur’s round table.”

“Oliver,” Thea answered tearfully.

“That’s a really nice name,” Felicity smiled.

Thea’s phone buzzed again. She wiped her tears away. “I have to go.”

“Okay,” Felicity responded. “Remember, you have my number if you need it.”

“Thanks, Felicity. Can I call you Felicity?” Thea smiled and then left, closing the door quietly behind her, without even waiting for a response.

Felicity stood in silence for a moment, pondering on the strangeness of her life, before she settled back down in her chair and started her notes from scratch.

Looked like she had signed herself up to save two lost strays.

* * *

She was walking to the nearest convenient store on the edge of the Glades to get a pint of milk when police sirens started wailing a few blocks away, the sirens ringing in her ears as she frowned and continued walking. The roar of a helicopter overhead sounded next, followed by more sirens. Not thinking much of it, Felicity steeled herself, tensing her muscles to run just in case and kept on walking, making sure she was staying in a lit path on the street.

Her cell rang. She glanced at the screen. Quentin Lance. She picked up begrudgingly. “Hey.”

“ _Where are you right now?_ ”

“To be honest, that’s not any of your business.”

“ _Oh, trust me, tonight it is._ ”

A flash of annoyance swept through her. “Okay, care to explain why?”

“ _We managed to shoot down that dragon that’s been running about feral and killing everybody. It’s downed, injured, and probably furious. We’re putting an alert out for everybody in the Glades to stay in their homes and lock their doors. If you’re in the Glades, sweetheart, you need to get back home as soon as you can._ ”

Only one thing stuck with her that whole rant. “You shot him down?”

“ _Bola launcher and a few well-placed sniper shots after we lit the sky up with a few of those spotlights. Did you not hear me, Felicity? You have to get yourself home to safety right the hell now if you’re in the Glades. Where are you?_ ”

She looked around, catching sight of the street sign and the buildingd surrounding her. “Down by the old Queen steel factory. I’m walking to the store for milk.”

“ _You get yourself home right now, young lady. You hear me?_ ”

God, why was her future step-dad so demanding? She gritted out, “But I need milk.”

“ _Not now you don’t._ ”

Her anger rose. “But I _need_ milk,” she repeated, with emphasis. “I. _Need._ Milk.”

“ _I don’t care if you need any damn milk, Felicity! You can live without milk! Get yourself home. Your mother will go crazy if anything happens to you, you can’t -_ ” She hung up. Not that she didn’t not like Quentin, but when he acted like an over-protective, demanding father, it sometimes became too much. He wasn’t her real father, and it overwhelmed her when he acted like it.

And she wanted milk.

Who was he to tell her she couldn’t buy milk? _That’s right,_ she told herself firmly, with some smugness in her internal voice as she shoved her phone back into her pocket, _I can buy whatever milk I want, whenever I want. Quentin doesn’t have any control over what milk I buy or when I buy it. And he really shouldn’t._

She continued her walk to the store, although this time slightly more hurried, her head on a swivel. The streets were empty, street lamps above sizzling and casting shadows, and while usually that wouldn’t bother her too much because she knew she could handle herself, thanks to having a cop future step-dad, it bothered her more when she knew a dangerous wild dragon was on the loose, injured and prepared to defend itself by any means.

Felicity had just turned the corner onto the street where her convenience store was when she froze in shock and horror, almost stumbling over in her surprise. A dark sleek shadow was crossing the road only a few metres in front of her, and as she turned onto the street the shadow itself went still, turning lustrous bright blue eyes on her.

“Oh, I am so dead,” Felicity muttered to herself when the shadow smoothly moved under the light of a street lamp, keeping its luminous cobalt orbs fixed on her, revealing two massive black wings and a tail whipping from side to side. “And I didn’t even get to buy my milk.”

As soon as she got a proper look at the Starling City Night Fury, her breath caught in her throat. He really was as stunning in real life as had appeared on paper on those sketches, probably even more so. She was finally able to get a real sense of his size, and he was about the size of a four by four care, muscular but still managing to look more like an over-large, winged scaled cat than a lizard. He was a lethal, majestic predator, designed for stealth, strength and extreme speed and the air, and Felicity’s stomach dropped and a tremor passed through her body as she realised that he was the perfect killing machine and would be able to snap her spine with one bat of a paw.

And those _eyes_. Those were not the eyes of a wild animal. No wild animal’s eyes could ever be that bright, that beautiful. They held a deeper intelligence and meaning, deeper emotions and feelings than anybody could possibly understand.

He may have had the body of a dragon, but he had the eyes of a human, and maybe that was what made the Night Fury all the more terrifying.

Sirens sounded again in the distance, however this time they sounded closer. The dragon startled at them; his cerulean eyes widened and the ferocity of them burnt like tiny flickering blue flames, followed by a deep, low rumble erupting from his throat, edged with pain, fear and panic. It was at that moment that Felicity remembered that the dragon was injured and being hunted mercilessly, and was probably just as terrified of her as she was of him. She tried to approach, taking a hesitant step forwards, but the rumble increased in intensity until it was a snarl, announcing a clear warning and threat to her as she attempted to get closer.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” she said gently, trying to keep the terrified tremor out of her voice, her hands held out placatingly, hoping to God that this dragon was really as clever as it was said to be and could reasonably understand her. She glanced back worriedly, because the sirens were louder, therefore meaning the police cars were getting closer. “Why aren’t you flying away? You could escape easily.”

The dragon bowed his head, gazing at her for a moment as if deciding whether or not she should be trusted, so Felicity stayed completely still until the Night Fury humphed in pain and turned, sweeping his tail around to reveal his tail fins.

No, not tail fins. Tail fin. Singular. His left tail fin was missing, torn off by the looks of it as blood was seeping from a wound. Felicity’s brain wracked through information and she blanched as she came to a realisation. “Oh no… with only one tail fin, you’re unbalanced and won’t be able to maintain stable flight…” She inhaled shakily. “You can’t fly away, can you? You can’t get into the air without crashing.” Felicity made her decision in a number of seconds. Sure, this dragon was flying around killing people, but he also seemed to have emotions and intelligence. She couldn’t let him suffer at the hands of the police or IDCO. “Okay, we need to get you out of here. Hide you somewhere.”

The dragon rumbled again, but then his head perked slightly at her words and he purred louder, as if in agreement. Felicity looked around searchingly for a place for him to hide before it hit her - the old abandoned Queen steel factory. Nobody would think to look for him there. She motioned for him to follow, retracing her steps at a jog and to her surprise the Night Fury followed at a brisk trot, wings folded to his sides and claws clacking on the asphalt, body held low to avoid being seen.

_This dragon has killed over a dozen people,_ one part of her mind screamed at her.

_This dragon is being hunted, he’s hurting and he needs your help, another part reasoned._

_He’s a murderer!_

_He’s just lost and in pain._

_He could kill you!_

_But he hasn’t yet. Why is that? Maybe because he isn’t as lethal and wild and uncontrollable as people think._

They reached the high security gate and Felicity paused, not knowing what to do. She didn’t have the key to unlock it, and she wasn’t one of those parkour-loving people that could hop a gate without sweating. But before she even had to come up with a solution, the dragon gave two massive bounds and leapt over the gate with three wide flaps of his large wings, landing gracefully on the other side and turning back to her with a low whine, as if asking her to follow, his piercing blue eyes staring at her.

“Go inside and hide,” she told him firmly. “One of those cops is my future step-dad, I’ll be able to put him off your scent. It’s a long story really, not one for now - what the hell, you’re a dragon. You probably don’t care about my messed up family issues,” she sighed. “Just - stay here and hide. I’ll come tomorrow morning and check up on you, okay?” Her eyes danced over the missing tail fin with a grimace. “And we’re gonna have to do something about that tail fin.”

The dragon, after giving one last huff of farewell, wheeled around and vanished into the darkness. Heaving a shaky exhale, Felicity steeled herself, willing her hands to stop shaking as she returned back to the street the convenience store was on. Hugging her arms around herself, she quickly went into the shop and, seeing there was nobody there serving at the counter, grabbed the milk and left payment for it on the counter with a note saying that the owner hadn’t been there but thanks for the milk.

She had just exited the shop with milk carton in hand when a police car came roaring up, screeching to a halt beside her; Detective Lance leapt out, concern written all over his face as he rushed towards her, his partner Lucas Hilton behind him. Felicity rolled her eyes as he immediately began fussing over her, making sure she wasn’t hurt.

“The hell, Felicity, I told you to get yourself home to safety! Do you not understand what that _means_? Your mom and I have been going crazy! With that crazy dragon running wild around the Glades -”

She cut him off with a scowl, lifting her hand up to show him what she was holding. “I needed milk.”

“Oh, _you needed milk_ ,” Quentin replied sarcastically, his frustration evident. “Of course that outweighs everything, even your safety. _You needed milk._ That dragon has killed _dozens_ of people, Felicity, it so easily could have killed you too!”

She pushed his hand away from where it was resting on her shoulder, glaring. “You’re over-reacting. The dragon didn’t attack me, he just ran away.”

Visibly startling, her future cop step-father reached forwards and grabbed her arm again desperately, jolting her towards him so he could look into her eyes as he exclaimed, “Wait, you saw it? It saw you? It could’ve killed you, Felicity!” He exhaled in exasperation, running one hand through his thinning hair. “Do you not see how reckless you’ve been? Your mother -”

She pulled her arm violently out of his grasp and hissed, “I was _fine_ , alright? He didn’t hurt me, he was just scared and ran off.”

“Felicity -”

Whatever patience she still had snapped. “You’re not my father, so stop acting like it! You don’t get to talk to me about reckless behaviour and order me around. Try again and next time you’ll find your ringtone permanently changed to the My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic theme tune. Got it?”

Quentin had shrunk back a little during her talk, but he nodded meekly, a blank look on his face as he replied, “Got it.” There was an awkward pause before he questioned, getting back to business. “In which direction did the dragon run off in?”

Felicity turned and pointed in the exact opposite direction to where the Queen steel factory was located. Quentin and Lucas turned and shouted to the other officers. The others clambered back into their police cars and drove off, Lucas climbing into another detective’s cruiser while shooting a pointed look at Felicity. It was a secret look they had developed, where Hilton silently told Felicity to back down a little because Quentin was having a bad day. With a roll of her eyes, she nodded. After a few minutes, as all the other police cruisers drove off, the blonde IT girl was left standing on the asphalt with her future cop step-dad.

As soon as Quentin turned his head to look at her, Felicity crossed her arms and tightened her coat around her torso, glaring down at the road and avoiding the detective’s eyes. Then Quentin opened the passenger door to his cruiser and waved a hand for her to get in, his eyes set hard and cold, and Felicity knew that he wasn’t giving her a choice and that she would be getting in that car. She clambered in with a thinly veiled glower, and they sat in frigid silence for ten minutes or so on their journey to Felicity’s apartment, until the detective didn’t seem to be able to stand it anymore and broke it.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“Honestly, Quentin, you don’t have to -”

“But I want to,” her future step-father cut in. “Look, I… I care about you, Felicity,” Quentin said quietly. “I don’t want you getting hurt. I know it’s always just been you and your mom… just you two, and that you’re still adjusting to the idea of having step-sisters in the future and a step-father… Donna and I, we just worry.”

“I know,” she responded in an equally quiet voice.

“I wouldn’t order you around without a reason,” Quentin continued. “I know you don’t consider me your dad but… you’re like a daughter to me. Just as important as Laurel and Sara are. If I ever order you around… it’s because I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Honestly, Quentin, I get it. It’s okay,” Felicity managed a small smile. “Do you need to take my statement?”

The cop rolled with eyes with a heavy sigh, nodding. “Yeah. Wouldn’t do any good putting it off, would have to take it eventually. I’ll make sure it’s short. Hey, you got a pretty good look at that dragon, right?” Felicity shrugged. “Your mom says you’re great at drawing… you think you could draw us a picture?”

Felicity blushed, looking down at her hands. “I’m not that good…”

“She also told me you won eleven art competitions when you were a teenager and got offered two Art college scholarships that you turned down for MIT,” Quentin raised an eyebrow, driving into Felicity’s apartment complex small parking lot.

“Okay, so maybe I’m great,” Felicity admitted. “It’s not something I publically broadcast, you know? It used to be more, but now it’s just a hobby. I’m more of a computers person than an art person.”

Quentin opened the door for her and they headed up to her apartment together. After switching the lights on and settling down, grabbing some drinks for them both as the cop in her future step-dad made snide comments about the state of her window latches and crappy door locks, but then Felicity brought up her top-of-the-line security system and he stopped complaining.

It took her barely half an hour to draw a rough sketch of the Night Fury as she had been able to see him. The whole time she brushed the pencil across the page, she remained lost in thought, pondering on the dragon.

He could have killed her, escaped and ran, except instead the dragon had let her live and let her help him. He had acted so _human_. It had stunned her, actually, how human he had seemed, while it had fascinated her to see the personality behind the predator. He had, while being ferocious, dangerous and threatening, acted curious, like a cat examining a new human for the first time. He had certainly understood her when she spoke, even listened to her. Sure, he had killed over a dozen people, but they were all bad people; Felicity was even more certain now that dragon knew what he was doing and was actually trying, maybe, to save the city from corruption. Perhaps he was not as beyond redemption as the government and police thought.

His injuries, though, were a massive problem. The devastation that was the loss of one of his tail fins meant that the Night Fury would never fly again, unless some kind of prosthetic was made that could attach to his tail and give him a new free-moving fin. Except Felicity didn’t know how to make that sort of thing, and she certainly didn’t think she would be able to pay somebody to do it without attracting the attention of the authorities.

“Wow, Felicity. That’s… you’re an incredible artist.” Quentin’s comment startled her out of her musings and she glanced up at him before looking back down at her drawing.

“Thanks,” she blushed. When Quentin held a hand out to accept the drawing, she pouted and snatched it away from him. “Oh, no, I’m keeping this. I didn’t just spend half an hour drawing this for it to be pinned up on some board in the precinct, to be smudged and ruined by prodding, sweaty fingers. No, you can have a photocopy.”

Quentin left that evening with a four paragraph statement and photocopy of Felicity’s drawing. Felicity pinned up the original drawing on her wall, admiring it for a moment before pulling a tub of ice cream from her freezer and sitting on the couch, shoving mouthfuls of it into her mouth as she popped her DVD copy of Sherlock series 1. Her evening had become far too stressful.

She put her spoon down on the table and sat back. “I saved the Starling City Night Fury. He’s hiding in the Queen steel factory with a tail fin torn off so he can’t fly. I helped him and he listened to me.”

She frowned. “Okay, so does that technically mean we’re friends?”

* * *

She woke up early the next morning after setting her alarm for half five, so she could fit in a quick check in with the Night Fury before she had to be at work at nine. As she munched on a hastily made sandwich with one hand, navigating through the Glades with the other on her steering wheel, she figured that if she was hungry, the dragon would be too. Luckily, she knew a local store that opened at six that sold fresh meat.

“What would a dragon eat?” she muttered as she stood in front of the counter. “Fish? Beef? Chicken?” In the end she got a bit of everything, and she grimaced at the bill as she dumped the bag of meat on the passenger seat and clambered back inside her car. Feeding a fully grown dragon was going to do some serious damage to her credit card.

It only took her another five minutes to drive to the old steel factory. She parked her car on the curb and got out carefully, locking her car and grabbing her set of bolt cutters from the boot. She made a little whimpering wincing noise when she cut the chain locking the entrance gate closed; sure, she broke laws on a regular basis with her hacking, but this physical stuff seemed a hell of a lot worse to her. Then slipped inside the area and approached the Foundry doors.

Flutters in her stomach made her feel slightly nauseous as she cracked open the doors and gazed insides. One of the higher windows of the empty warehouse-like space was broken, which was probably how the dragon had entered the building. Utter silence fell, and Felicity squinted into the darkness as she entered and closed the doors behind her, fumbling for a light switch somewhere on the wall.

Light flooded the vast space immediately and the dragon instantly reacted, wheeling around and spreading his wings threateningly with a fierce growl, baring his teeth and his pupils slits in his blue eyes. But then he caught sight of her and almost immediately, he transformed from deadly monster to adorable puppy, blinking bright blue eyes at her and making an interested sound. Felicity took a few steps forwards and the Night Fury raised his head curiously, eyeing her up and prowling around her, sniffing carefully, ear plates flicking up and down.

“Stay cool, stay cool,” she muttered to herself. “Lethal fire-breathing dragon only a metre away, don’t freak out, keep your cool, Felicity.”

The Night Fury sat back on his haunches in front of her, seeming intrigued by her. Felicity shifted nervously. One wrong move and this creature would probably snap her spine. She had to maintain a confident persona.

“Um… hi,” Felicity tried. When the dragon didn’t react beyond snorting, cocking his head slightly, Felicity quickly took a slab of pork chop out of the meat bag with one latex gloved hand, holding it out in front of her as a peace offering, breath caught in her throat. “I thought you might be hungry.”

The dragon tilted his head even more sideways and crept forwards, opening his mouth up to accept the fish, but then her cell phone beeped, signifying an incoming text and he startled, drawing back with a snarl, immediately falling back into defensive positioning, teeth bared, claws out and ear plates flat against his skull. Felicity prepared herself to run, expecting the Night Fury to leap forwards, clamp his massive jaws around her arm and then it would be bye bye Felicity, but he didn’t react any further, just growled, watching her cautiously.

Felicity swiftly put the meat away, dropped the bag and pulled her phone out and read the text, muttering, “Sorry! Sorry!” It was from Thea, asking if she could come to the Queen mansion after she finished work. Apparently she had heard from Tommy, who had heard from Laurel, who had heard from Quentin, that Felicity had ran into the Night Fury the night before and wanted to question her about it and take a look at her sketch. She replied quickly with a short acceptance.

Seeing how the dragon was still eyeing her phone suspiciously, she held it up, showing she wasn’t going to make any calls. But he nodded his head - and Felicity realised he was telling her to put it on the floor. Carefully, she placed it down, screen-side up. Then the Night Fury motioned his head to the side, telling her to kick it away.

“Oh, no,” Felicity said flatly. “This is a $600 iPhone, I am _not_ scratching my baby.” Instead, she backed away from it to the other side of the space, her footsteps echoing. She picked up the pork chop again. “Okay, you want this now?”

Within seconds, the Night Fury had transformed from lethal predator to the cutest damn thing she had ever seen, his defensive crouch loosening until he was perched on his hind quarters, bright blue eyes blinking at her and ear plates twitching. He snuck forwards, spine curving and arching as he reached forwards and snapped his teeth around the pork chop in her hands very suddenly, gulping it down in a flash.

Felicity stood, stunned, for a second. “Wow,” she managed. “You must be hungry.” The dragon turned to her again, narrowing his eyes and giving her another suspicious look, and she realised why it had seemed so familiar earlier. “You could be a Queen with a glare like that. S’just like Thea’s.” He started approaching her, towering over her and as he started to get too close, she started backing up, tripping over her own feet and panic took over. “No, no, don’t - You want more? I have more!”

Dumping the bag on the ground she quickly rustled through it and got out all the cuts of meat, feeding them to him one by one and each time, he made a happy rumbling sound and licked her lips. When she ran out of the meat, he made a huffing unhappy noise. She couldn’t help the smile that appeared on her face. The Night Fury wasn’t terrifying at all.

She sat, crossed legged, on the floor of the Foundry in front of him, and he settled down on his hind legs in front of her, forelegs held to his chest and wings spread slightly to balance as he stared her down with his massive glowing cerulean eyes. She noticed then that his pupils were blown wide; when he was friendly and happy, they were big, and when he was angry, upset or scared, they were slits. That would help her in working out his emotions, she guessed.

“You need a name,” she decided. “But it can’t be silly. You’re the most dangerous, fastest, stealthiest and most intelligent known dragon. Your name has to have a meaning.”

He humphed in some sort of agreement.

“Okay… Storm?” He growled. “Ash?” Another growl. “Ebony? Nightshade? Ooh, how about Midnight? Blackie?” He gave a fierce hiss of dislike. The perfect name appeared like a lightbulb in her head. “Hey, your suspicious looks are kind of like Thea Queen’s and she wanted a big brother called Oliver. How about that? Oliver?” A beat of silence passed and then a small, quiet purr of neither preference or hatred. “Great, Oliver is it. You know, I don’t know why people are so scared of you. You’re like a great big pussycat, aren’t you?” She reached forwards with one hand to pet him and his pupils quickly turned to slits and he gave a warning snarl. “Whoa there, tiger, sorry, didn’t mean to startle you… Let’s try this again.”

She stood very slowly and allowed him to get to his four paws as well so he could run if he wanted to. Then, giving a slow exhale, she very carefully reached her hand out, palm open and fingers trembling slightly. Oliver hissed as her hand got closer so she drew back, and when she reached out again, another hiss followed.

Gazing directly into his eyes, she was finally able to see why he didn’t want her touching him. He was afraid. Despite dwarfing her in size, being so much stronger than her, he was fearful of her. Felicity’s heart swelled as she realised that he probably wasn’t scared of her particularly… and that Oliver was probably scared of all humans. He must have had horrible experiences with humans in the past, which was why he was so wary of them now.

She closed her eyes. She needed to show that she trusted him. That was the only way he was going to trust her.

She turned her head away and closed her eyes, leaving her arm outstretched and she waited. After a moment, she felt cool scales nudge her palm and she exhaled with a whoosh shakily. Oliver was pressing his snout into her hand and as she opened her eyes and turned back to him, she saw that he was relaxed, leaning into her touch with his eyes closed. But then, his eyes cracked open and he saw her looking at him; Oliver’s eyes narrowed and he bared his teeth a little before bounding off back into the corner, lying down with his back to her.

Her heart was pounding a mile a minute in her chest. She had just touched, petted, a dragon. A fully grown adult male Night Fury. She had made friends with him. Elation swept through her. She could do this. She could save this dragon, give him his flight back and… maybe, if the Universe was kind… she could train him. _Tame_ him.

She checked her watch and grimaced. She had ten minutes to get to work. She called out, “I’m going to go now, Oliver… I’ll be back tomorrow, okay?” She received a grumble of acceptance. “I’ll bring food.” That got her a deeper rumble, one of reluctant happiness.

She departed the Foundry with her hands curled into fists, determination coursing through her veins. She lifted her head and announced powerfully, “I’m going to help you get your flight back, Oliver. I’m going to make a prosthetic tail fin and you’re gonna be able to fly again, I promise.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading.
> 
> Please leave kudos and comment :) Any questions, feel free to ask in a comment!
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


	3. ~ Part 2 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 2:**  
>  \- Finalise the first member of your team.  
> \- Inform said member of your team about the dragon you are planning to train.  
> \- Contemplate on issues that need to be sorted concerning said dragon (e.g. the prosthetic tail fin)  
> \- Begin the selection of other members of the team.  
> \- Finalise the team, assign roles and duties, arrange meeting times.  
> \- Fend off any suspicious onlookers from your plans concerning your dragon and team.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Annnndddd we're back. Part 2 everybody!
> 
> Thank you for everybody's wonderful support and amazing comments. The appreciation and attention this fanfic has received so far has astonished and stunned me, and I couldn't be more grateful for you all. So thank you. *massive hugs*
> 
> Please leave kudos and comment :) Proved fact: comments motivate writers to write faster. And to write more. And post faster. *wink*
> 
> (And if you're concerned after reading that there's not much Oliver in this part, don't worry. He's the centre of attention in Part 3 :) )

* * *

“Tell me everything,” Thea demanded, opening the door and obviously forgetting to greet Felicity like a normal human being as Felicity made her way up the porch steps of the Queen mansion nervously wringing her hands as she gazed up at the massive house in front of her, pretty sure that her jaw had dropped. “I want to know where it happened, what time - every little detail, Felicity! _Everything!_ ”

“You aren’t even going to offer me a hello?” Felicity said, raising her eyebrows.

“ _Hello_ ,” Thea repeated impatiently, before launching off again, “Seriously, I want the whole story, nothing cut out at all, the lead up, the encounter and the aftermath, with every little thing you noticed -”

“Slow down there, Thea,” somebody chuckled from inside the house. Felicity froze in horror mid-step as Moira Queen appeared at the door, looking impeccable and beautiful as always. Felicity backed up a little, expecting some sort of hostility or suspicion like she had received at first from Thea, but instead the older Queen woman’s eyes were sparkling with mirth as she chuckled lightly. “Don’t you think you should invite your guest in first before interrogating her?”

Thea blushed in embarrassment and muttered a quick apology, holding the door open for Felicity as she stepped inside - and if her jaw didn’t drop before, she was certainly gaping now. She had never seen such a classy, sophistic, massive home before. She knew the Queens were rich but wow, with a house like this… they must have been properly loaded. Gazing around the large entrance lobby and up the two grand staircases, she finally turned back to Thea, her eyes wide.

“Yeah, that’s pretty much everybody’s reaction when they first come here,” Thea laughed on seeing Felicity’s face, linking their arms and nudging her with her elbow. “Totally normal, don’t worry.”

“I am actually lost for words,” Felicity spluttered, blinking. “This place is like, twenty times bigger than my apartment. No, you know what, _thirty_. Thirty times bigger than my apartment.”

Thea beamed, squeeze her arm briefly in some kind of reassurance. “Don’t worry, I won’t let you get lost. Come on, my laptop’s upstairs, we can do this thing in my bedroom.” She tugged Felicity towards the staircase.

“Thea,” Moira interrupted, raising an eyebrow pointedly. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to your _friend_?”

They paused awkwardly. Felicity smiled sheepishly, turning to Thea, who she hoped would explain, but Thea just stood there wordlessly, as if trying and failing to come up with words to tell her mother.

“Miss Smoak!” Walter appeared in the living room doorway, at just the right time to answer his wife’s question and give Thea and Felicity an escape route, smiling widely at her as he marched over and squeezed her shoulder, causing Felicity to break into a smile as well. “Delightful to see you again.”

“You too, Mr Steele,” she greeted him.

“Miss Smoak here is QC’s most talented IT technician,” Walter praised, turning to Moira informatively and inclining his head. “She was ranked 2nd in the National Information Technology competition at the age of only 19 and graduated M.I.T. with Masters early. Our IT department wouldn’t survive without her.”

Moira looked suitably impressed. Felicity hurried on to explain, seeing how Thea’s mother was still confused at her turning up at her house, “I’m also kind of Tommy’s future step-sister in law which means I’m Thea’s future half step-sister in law -” She frowned, going through that once again in her head, before mouthing a repeat. “Wait, is that right? Does that make sense?”

Walter shook his head, grimacing, “Miss Smoak…” It was his polite, British equivalent of _Please, stop. Now._

Thea picked up her slack, taking pity on her and explaining helpfully, “Tommy and Walter recommended I ask Felicity for help with getting my lost files back from my crappy laptop and then she offered to replace my hard drive with a better one and help me finish my English project.”

“Oh, yes, I have the hard drive here,” Felicity piped up, patting her bag. There were spare parts down in QC R&D that were always thrown out, and one of the technicians there had a crush on her so it was pretty easy to get her hands on any computer parts these days. “And I have a new program that’ll help you write your English project that’s better than Microsoft Word and Google Drive, Thea.”

Moira feigned interest while turning another one of those classic signature Queen suspicious looks at Felicity. “Oh? What’s this English project about?”

“Newspaper article,” Thea told her, shooting her mother a look to silently tell her to back down and that Felicity was okay. “We’re allowed to write about whatever we want, as long as we keep it local.” She raised her head proudly. “I’m writing about the Starling City Night Fury. Felicity said as a kid she knew all about dragons and she’s looking into this one too and she said that she could offer information if I wanted it. Last night she had a run in with the dragon in the Glades, so I’m going to conduct an interview.”

A myriad of emotions passed over Walter and Moira’s face, and it was Walter first who questioned, shock in his voice, “You saw the dragon?”

“Yeah,” Felicity replied reluctantly, with a thin smile. It made her somewhat uncomfortable talking about Oliver like he was just a lion to be spotted and pictured on a safari when she knew he had feelings and emotions. When she knew that he acted so human. “He’s really not as scary as people think. Well, he was _scary_ … but, you know, everybody’s making him out to be this murderous hell demon, flying around and killing people mercilessly… he’s not. He’s just a dragon.”

“She drew a picture,” Thea beamed.

“Really?” Moira said, obviously not believing Felicity’s story but willing to drag it out for her daughter’s sake. “Could we see?”

Felicity set her jaw, wanting to prove to the Queens that she wasn’t just some IT girl lying through her teeth, wanting to make some money out of a vulnerable seventeen year old, and wanting to prove to them she was actually trying to help. With a shrug, she pulled the sketch out of her bag carefully and delicately passed it over to the older Queen woman. Immediately, Thea and Walter moved to stand over Moira’s shoulder to get their own look at the picture.

“This is incredible, Felicity,” Walter commented, eyes wide as he took the picture in. “You have a real talent.”

“Thanks,” Felicity responded. Not wanting to seem too rude but also not wanting to sound demanding, she muttered, “Uh… Thea…?” because the way Moira was glowering at her over the top of her drawing was making her squirm.

Thea took the picture and handed it back to Felicity, who accepted it gratefully and tucked it away, before the young Queen called back to her parents that they were going to be working so not to interrupt them before forcefully dragging Felicity up the grand staircase and along a long corridor into her bedroom, that happened to be the size of Felicity’s apartment alone.

Felicity spent half an hour attempting to answer probing questions and give details about what she pretended was a five second encounter. There was definitely a budding little journalist in Thea as she asked Felicity to describe the static charge in the air and the sensed emotions, taking notes on her laptop in the new program Felicity advised she used, the new hard drive running like clockwork. The blonde struggled to reply, only due to the fact that she felt like she desperately needed to tell somebody about Oliver, just to get that secret off of her chest.

Every time she lied, saying she didn’t know much about the dragon, she felt even more guilty knowing she was lying to such a vulnerable young girl. It was tearing her up inside keeping it to herself, but it was killing her keeping it from Thea specifically.

“Okay, Thea…” She cut into the younger girl’s rant. “I have to tell you something.”

“Go ahead,” Thea said, frowning at her laptop screen as she continued writing, splitting her focus between her article and Felicity.

Sighing, Felicity reached forwards and shut the laptop screen. Thea made a cry of protest that she needed to save that paragraph she had just crafted, but when she saw Felicity’s expression, she sobered.

“I know we’ve only just met,” Felicity told her nervously, biting her lip and shifting on the bed so she was directly facing her. “But I feel like I can trust you. I mean, we barely know each other and I kind of already see you as a little sister, and I need to tell somebody this… I can’t tell my best friend because she’s possibly the biggest gossip in Starling City, I can’t tell Laurel or Sara because… well, Sara’s away at college and Laurel hates me. Tommy’s just a close acquaintance, not really a proper friend and there is no way in hell I can tell my mother or Quentin about this.”

Thea turned serious. “You can tell me, Felicity. Really, you can trust me. I trust you completely. What it is?” She looked a little fearful underneath the composed face she was presenting.

She steeled herself for a bad reaction, gazing at Thea carefully as she tried to explain as slowly as she possibly could, “This is going to make me sound like a complete crazyhead, okay? It’ll seem insane but I swear to you, it’s the truth, I am not lying nor will I _ever_ lie to you about anything. But before I tell you, you have to promise me you’re not going to tell anybody what I’m going to tell you.”

“... So I can’t put it in my article?”

“No! You most definitely _cannot_ put it in your newspaper article, Thea!” Felicity insisted. “You have to swear that you won’t rat me out, you won’t tell the police or your parents or anybody. I’m completely serious, this could put… _somebody_ … in a whole heap of danger if it got out, okay?”

Thea looked alarmed. “This isn’t something illegal, is it?”

“Uh… I suppose it depends what way you look at it.” Seeing how the young Queen was becoming even more panicked and agitated by the second by her cryptic language, Felicity blurted out before Thea could stand and leave, “I think the Starling City Night Fury might be my friend now.”

“... What?”

Felicity repeated the sentence, wincing.

“... Care to elaborate on that?” Thea prompted, her eyes wide.

Felicity sighed and threw her a pillow, telling her to lie down because this was going to take a while before launching into her story. After describing the events of the night before in explicit detail due to Thea’s poking and demands, Felicity went on to nervously explain the events that had occurred that morning with the dragon, explaining how although there had been tension at first, by the end of the morning Oliver had let him put her hand on his snout and pet him, which she figured was a huge step towards friendship.

Thea, throughout her entire tale, simply stared in stunned amazement, remaining in silent shock and disbelief, until the point at which Felicity brought up her plan to make Oliver a prosthetic tail fin so he could fly again. In an excited voice, she said, “You’re totally gonna make a saddle too, right?”

Felicity blinked at Thea in astonishment for a moment at that, before questioning shortly, “What?”

“Felicity, you made friends with a _dragon_!” Thea stressed. “If you could tame him, train him… you could be the first person to ride a dragon! You could _fly_!”

“I’m perfectly fine with flying by plane, Thea,” Felicity pursed her lips. “Not to mention I think a plane is a much safer mode of transport than a dragon.”

“You’re seriously going to pass up the opportunity to be the first person on the planet to ride a dragon?!”

“He has _feelings_ , Thea, and emotions and opinions and he probably _wouldn’t_ enjoy me treating him like a horse!” Felicity replied insistently. “And even if I did want to train him to ride him… we’ll still need the custom prosthetic tail and a custom saddle made, and I don’t know anybody who’ll be able to make those for us.”

Thea lit up. “Well, fortunately for you, I think I do.” She stood up very suddenly and bounded out the room with a spring in her step, leaving Felicity staring after her, gaping for a moment, until after a few minutes Thea returned, dragging somebody behind her.

It was a tall, large man with dark skin and lots and lots of muscles, dressed in a smart suit with a very flat, blank expression plastered on his face, although he seemed to be holding back a chuckle at Thea’s sheer enthusiasm. As Thea closed the door behind her, she threw her arms out as if to present the man to Felicity like a celebrity and Felicity couldn’t help but bring a hand to her mouth, laughing.

“Introducing John Diggle,” Thea grinned. “My family’s personal security consultant and Walter’s head bodyguard.”

Felicity rose to her feet, attempting to be graceful but then she tripped on Thea’s duvet and fell face-first onto the floor. Diggle, however, managed to dart out fast enough to grab her under her armpits so she could avoid breaking her nose and, blushing from the roots of her hair, she muttered, “Er, pleasure to meet you, Mr Diggle.”

“Just Diggle,” the bodyguard returned, helping her up properly so she could stand. “Only people that call me a mister are Mrs Queen and Mr Steele in this house. Or you can call me Dig, if you want.”

“Felicity,” she responded, sticking her hand out. “Smoak.”

“Well, pleasure to meet you too, Miss Smoak.”

“Ah, no…” Felicity grimaced. “Please, just Felicity. Miss Smoak makes it sound like you’re talking to my mom and trust me, you do not want to be talking to my mom; I mean, it would be pretty mortifying for you, she’s like the exact polar opposite of me. She’s all super short dresses and revealing cleavage for tips at the bar and really, really forward flirting and snogging in public and me, well, I’m… not.”

Diggle was grinning at her little ramble. “Glad you’re not then, because that would have been awkward for you. Flirting with me that is. I’ve got a girlfriend.”

“He means a girlfriend who used to be his ex-wife who he now wants to make his wife again but he doesn’t have the balls to propose to her,” Thea butted in, crossing her arms with a smirk.

“ _Wow_ ,” was all Felicity could say.

“Hmm, yeah,” Diggle rolled his eyes. “What did you drag me up here for, Thea?”

Thea and Felicity quickly exchanged glances, lapsing into silence. Felicity trusted Thea, sure, but this was a completely new person to her and she didn’t know anything about Diggle. The man himself was now looking between them both concernedly, so Felicity motioned for him to take a seat as she pulled Thea down so they were sat cross-legged on her bed side-by-side.

“Is it okay if we tell him?” Thea asked at a whisper into her ear. “I know you said not to tell anybody but… I’m really, really sure Dig could help us with this.”

“Do you trust him?” Felicity questioned at equal volume.

“With my life.”

“It’s more whether or not you trust him with _his_ life, Thea…”

Thea nodded firmly. “I do. Dig’s stayed with me through the cold and rough… I trust him implicitly.” After a brief moment of doubt and hesitance, Felicity gave in and gave a small nod. Thea immediately turned to the bodyguard. “Okay, Dig… Let’s say _hypothetically_ , Felicity is now friends with the Starling City Night Fury that was shot down and injured last night and is now missing a tail fin, and _hypothetically_ , she wants to help by finding somebody to make a prosthetic tail fin so he can fly again. _Hypothetically_ , what would you say to that?”

Diggle stared at her, motionless. For a moment, Felicity thought that they were doomed. But then a very small smile cracked Diggle’s face and he repeated slowly, “ _Hypothetically_?”

“Of course.”

“Alright then. _Hypothetically_ , if I believed you, I would say that I think you’re both in way over your heads.” He paused. “I would also, _hypothetically_ , say that you need a guy to get the materials you need for the prosthetic and then you need to find a mechanic, both of them willing to keep their mouths shut about this dragon situation.”

Thea nodded before prompting, “And _hypothetically_ , if I ask you if you know of some people that fit that description…?”

“Then _hypothetically_ , I would recommend Roy Harper,” Diggle replied. “Met the guy when first getting into the private security business. Kid lives in the Glades, does odd jobs for cash, trained in mechanics when he was younger and keeps his nose out of people’s business. Has issues with authority, so wouldn’t go to the police. Also a pretty big nerd about dragons, to be honest.” Then he shrugged. “As for the materials, _hypothetically_ , I would offer to get them myself.”

“Great. And uh, _hypothetically_ , if I asked you to do that, get those materials and, er, for Roy Harper’s cell number…”

Diggle rolled his eyes. “Okay, Queenie, cut the crap. I think we all know this isn’t a hypothetical situation you’re talking about.” He turned to Felicity. “Don’t know how the hell you managed to become friends with a Night Fury of all dragons, but congratulations on that, befriending the deadliest known dragon on this planet. Luckily for you two, I signed a non-disclosure confidentiality agreement with your family and I like dragons quite a lot as well. Ran into a couple of Terrible Terrors in Afghanistan that kept our toes warm.” He checked his watch. “I’ll call Roy up and ask for a meeting with him tomorrow morning. You’ll need to get the measurements for the tail fin before then, but I presume the two of you can cover that?”

“Yes,” Felicity replied quickly, nodding enthusiastically. “And thank you so, so much for agreeing to help us with this. And for not telling anybody. Especially for that not telling anybody part.”

“Dig and I can come pick you up at your apartment tomorrow morning and we can drive to the Foundry together,” Thea arranged swiftly. “What’s your address and what time?”

“I’ll text you it and six am.”

Thea looked scandalised. “ _Six_ am?”

“I have a job to get to, Thea,” Felicity reminded her.

Diggle flashed a quick smile at them both as Felicity announced it was late and she needed to be getting home. After embracing Thea with a soft thank you, for listening and believing and helping, she followed the bodyguard down the stairs; calling a farewell to both Moira and Walter who responded in kind, the blonde IT girl hurried down the porch steps to her Mini Cooper, clutching her bag and keys, with Diggle escorting her.

“Must be one special dragon for you to go to all this trouble to help him,” Diggle commented, as Felicity clambered into her car. “Must be pretty remarkable.”

Felicity smiled before closing her door. “Oh, you have no idea.”

* * *

Diggle and Thea picked up her up at six am as she had requested, the bodyguard looking well rested and refreshed by the morning air while Thea was the typical grumpy teenager, tired and upset at being woken up early. They shot her weird looks when she dumped her bag of fresh meat at her feet, but she shot them looks to shut up and gave them directions to the Foundry.

Diggle handed her a tape measure as they walked up to the large steel doors together, telling her it would be a good idea to maybe take a picture of Oliver’s undamaged tail fin so Roy had something to work to. Thea tried to convince Felicity to let her come in and meet Oliver, but Felicity argued against it - Oliver barely trusted her at the moment and was still extremely wary of humans; she didn’t want to mess up the trust she had gained with Oliver by bringing in unfamiliar humans that he might view as a threat.

It took only half an hour to get all the measurements and pictures she needed. Oliver greeted her happily when she entered the Foundry, closing the door behind her, his ear plates twitching and big blue eyes blinking as he bounced around her, wings flapping erratically every so often as he nudged and pushed her around playfully, getting especially excited when he caught a whiff of the meat she had brought with her for his breakfast. As he gulped down the meat, she took all of the required measurements and snapped a few photos from different angles before rising and stroking his head, telling him that she had to go but that she would be back that evening.

Oliver purred happily as her hand made contact with his head, scratching under his chin, and Felicity couldn’t help but grin, a chuckle escaping her mouth as he blinked his massive blue eyes at her lazily, pupils so dilated that she thought he looked high. However, the moment she began to leave he growled and tried to stop her, prowling in front of her and blocking the doors. She shot him a warning look; he stared back at her innocently, but refused to move. Eventually she escaped, but only after giving Oliver a small scolding that left him sulking in the corner.

“Roy’s meeting us in Big Belly Burger at seven,” Diggle informed them as Felicity clambered back into the car, piece of paper with the measurements and phone in hand.

“I didn’t know Big Belly opened that early,” Felicity frowned.

“It doesn’t,” Diggle responded with a bashful grin. “My sister-in-law Carly works there, I asked her if she could let us in early so we could get coffees and talk in privacy in exchange for babysitting my nephew on Saturday night so she can go out with her friends.”

“Huh. Nice one, Dig,” Thea nodded, impressed.

After parking the car, Diggle led them to Big Belly where upon arriving they found a young man waiting outside the doors, looking bored. He was wearing a scruffy red hoodie and jeans, hands in his pockets and hood covering his head, but as they approached the kid pushed the hood off to reveal ruffled hair and sharp cheekbones with a fearsome smirk as he looked Thea up and down and took in Felicity.

“Nice shoes,” he told Felicity dryly, and the blonde blushed when she looked down herself and realised she was wearing her panda flats. “When you said you needed a mechanical favour, John, I didn’t realise it was for a Queen.” He shot Thea a look. “Doesn’t she have servants and people she pays obscene amounts of money to do the dirty hands-on work?”

“Might not want to insult the person who’s gonna pay you the money for that ‘mechanical favour’ that’ll pay off your rent for the next year,” Thea replied snarkily. “Guess you already know who I am.”

“Thea Queen,” Roy rolled his eyes. “Pretty little princess of the Queen empire. Yeah, I know who you are.” He stuck his hand out. “Roy Harper, although if you’ve been talking to John, you probably already knew that.”

He turned to Felicity expectantly and she quickly introduced herself, “Felicity. Smoak.”

Roy squinted at her. “You’re the daughter of a cop, right? Must’ve been hell in your rebellious teenage years.”

“He’s not my dad,” Felicity told him, gritting her teeth. “He’s my future step-dad. And he doesn’t get to tell me what to do. I could destroy him in five seconds flat if I had access to the internet and a keyboard.”

“She’s not kidding,” Thea added on the end.

Roy raised his eyebrows, sticking his hands back into his pockets with an expression of respect passing over his face. At that moment, a woman that must’ve been Diggle’s sister-in-law, Carly, opened the door to let them all in, flashing them all smiles and locking the doors behind them. They were seated in a comfortable wall booth within seconds and Carly brought them all over coffees and said that if they needed anything to give her a shout. The four of them waited until Carly had departed before turning to business.

“So John said you need me to build some prosthetic for you.”

“I don’t know if ‘build’ is the correct verb, but basically, yeah,” Felicity answered. “Did he explain who the, er, _recipient_ , of this prosthetic is going to be?”

“Yeah, he did, and I spilt hot sauce all down my best hoodie last night when he did,” Roy replied. “Kind of didn’t believe it at first, but you know the Glades, word travels fast, and there was word out that a blonde was seen with the dragon. Figured it had to be true. Since you’re here now, talking to me, and I guess you were that blonde, I guess I was right.” He tapped his fingers on the counter. “Got some measurements for me?”

Diggle cut in swiftly, “I think we should probably discuss the, uh, recipient, first.” He raised an eyebrow. “Is nobody gonna ask why we’re all agreeing to help a killing machine get his flight back? So he can undoubtedly go back to killing more people?”

“... They’re bad people?” Felicity retorted weakly.

“No, actually, Dig’s got a point,” Thea admitted, wincing under the glare Felicity aimed at her. “Felicity, you are aware that Oliver has killed over a dozen people, right?”

“Two dozen,” Roy corrected. “Technically. But I can't argue with Blondie’s point that they were bad people. Crime rate’s gone down three percent since the dragon got to work.”

“We could all be arrested for this,” Diggle added quietly.

Felicity’s eyes slammed shut and she bit her lip. This was exactly what she had been afraid was. Were they backing out now because of the danger of the situation? The personal risk to them if they did indeed help Oliver regain his flight, so he could go on with his vigilante-like activities?

“Just so you’re aware, the fact that this is probably illegal doesn't bother me,” Roy smirked. “I'm just curious at why you’re so eager to help a lethal vigilante dragon get back to killing people.”

“He's not…” Felicity trailed off. She didn't have an answer. For some reason, she hadn't really thought about the death toll after meeting Oliver face to face and getting to know him. “You guys haven't met him, okay? You don't understand how… _human_ he seemed. He has feelings; he can understand what you say and respond. He may be a dragon but he's… more than that.”

Diggle shook his head, sighing. “If you say so, Felicity. We’ll be discussing this further and in more detail at a later date but for now… I’m happy to let it rest.”

Felicity nodded in relief and slipped the piece of paper over to Roy. As he glanced over it, taking note of the measurements, she watched him nervously for some sort of reaction. There was nothing notable. “I’ve got some photos of his functional tail fin as well for you to work with and compare against,” she told him quietly. “I would text them to you, but as you can imagine this is quite sensitive and we don't want this information falling into the wrong hands… I'll print them off and drop them at your place by tonight.” Felicity frowned. “That means I'll have to get a new printer. And a new phone. Ugh, my life sucks. I love my iPhone.”

“I’ll buy you a new printer and phone if you want,” Thea offered.

Roy shot her a dirty look, scoffing, “And there it is. I was wondering when the rich privileged trust-fund kid was gonna show.”

“You don’t get to talk to her like that,” Felicity said, appalled.

“I can talk to her however I want,” Roy smirked.

“Not unless you want to stay out of hospital, you don’t,” Diggle replied, poker face. “Look, kid, I get you’ve had it rough, but that doesn’t mean you’re allowed to insult whoever you like. Thea’s a good kid. Just because she was raised with a lot of money in her family doesn’t mean she deserves your crap. Reel it in, man.”

Roy had the decency to look slightly embarrassed, muttering, “Sorry.” He turned back to Felicity, quickly changing the subject as he told her, “You drop those photos off at mine tonight and I’ll have the design outline ready for you by tomorrow.”

Felicity blinked in surprise. “That soon?”

“I work fast,” Roy said nonchalantly. “And I don’t have any other current projects I’m working on. You approve the blueprints and Dig gets me the materials I need, I can probably have something functional for a test drive in four days, so by Friday.” He pulled out a scrappy notebook and tore two pages out, writing his number down and handing them to Thea and Felicity. “I’ll text you when I’m done with my workshop address, you can swing by.” He wrote something else down on another piece and folded it over before passing it to Thea. “I presume since you’re the one with all the money that you’ll be paying. That’s how much the labour’s gonna cost you. You’ll have to pay for the materials too, but I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem, is it?”

Thea glanced at him warily before glancing at the figure. She frowned for a moment as if contemplating it before folding it up again. “I’ll double it.”

Roy looked a little offended. “I don’t want your money.”

“Yes, but I want to guarantee your silence on this matter,” Thea responded. “And you said that you’ll have something functional in four days, but what if it needs adjustments or additional work? I’ll pay you this -” She tapped the paper, “- Up-front, and then the same figure once we’re satisfied with the work.”

Felicity finally got her word in, protesting, “Thea, I can’t honestly let you pay for this -”

“I want to,” Thea insisted. “Felicity, I have too much money spare on my hands that would be spent carelessly on clothes and things I don’t need… at least I know this money is being used to create something good, something that’ll make somebody happy. Please. Let me do this, okay?”

Felicity huffed, taking a sip from her coffee. “I don’t like this.”

“You don’t have to,” Thea smiled smugly. “All you have to do is keep your mouth shut and let me pay.”

“Fine,” Felicity mumbled, finishing off her coffee.

After a brief tense moment, Thea reached over and laid her hand over Felicity’s, prompting her to look up at the younger girl, whose eyes were warm and friendly, reassuring her. “I want to help, Felicity,” Thea said softly. She motioned to Diggle and Roy. “ _We_ want to help. So let us help you, okay? Let us help Oliver.”

Felicity glanced around the table, gazing at every person sitting around the booth individually. There was a rich, vulnerable trust-fund girl, a stoic-faced bodyguard with a large heart and a gangly slums kid scraping a living joining her, the blonde IT girl that hardly made an impact on the world, but was trying.

Felicity smiled.

“Then let’s get to work, team.”

* * *

Felicity dropped the printed photos off at the address Roy texted her before visiting Oliver that evening after her finished her tedious, mind-numbing day at work.

The Night Fury seemed to light up on seeing her, bounding over excitedly and nuzzling his head into her hands with his whole body wiggling about in delight. She fed him again, only because she really didn’t know how much Night Furies were meant to eat or how often they hunted, before sitting back, relaxing and sketching absentmindedly as she watched him play around the room for an hour or two. After that, she had to leave because it was getting quite late, but she promised the dragon she would return the next morning.

She was getting attached to him. As Felicity drove home to her apartment that evening, she suddenly realised that with Oliver in her life, she was happier. Happier than she had ever felt in her life. Her depressing routine of waking up, working, procrastinating and sleeping, with the occasional visits from friends and family, had been transformed by the presence of the dragon, in a good way. She had something to look forwards to each morning and evening, and the fluttering, elated feeling in her chest she got after her visits to him lightened her up in a way she didn’t think was even possible before.

Roy had the blueprints ready by seven pm the next day as he claimed he would, sending Thea, Diggle and Felicity each a text with his workshop address. They met there all at the same time, Thea having thrown an excuse to her mother and step-father that it was an emergency study session with one of her friends that Diggle was taking her to. While Felicity had expected the workshop to be small, cosy and a complete mess to match Roy’s personality, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it was a large space, set behind a garage with tools meticulously ordered, the room clean and organised.

As Roy laid out the plans and blueprints for the prosthetic tail, he carefully explained to the three of them how it was meant to operate, pointing at each mechanism, pulley, wire and flap and informing them of its function and purpose. He seemed especially proud of the lever he had designed that would attach to the leading edge of Oliver's right tail fin so that he could control the left concurrently by himself. It all looked pretty legit and Felicity had to admit, she was seriously impressed. The young mechanic clearly knew his stuff.

After handing a list of the materials and supplies he was going to need to Diggle, he then began to tell them about why he had chosen those specific materials, for example the synthetic polymer material of the tail was a fireproof, waterproof fabric and the metal levers, bolts and screws were reasonably tensile, while having high melting points and being quite light in weight.

“I haven’t started on any designs for the saddle and harness, though, because I haven’t got any measurements of Oliver’s back,” Roy commented as he took back the designs after Felicity and Thea gave him a green light.

Felicity very quickly spluttered, “Um, I didn’t mention anything about a saddle or harness.”

“Oh, no, you didn’t,” Roy said. “Thea did.”

Closing her eyes and grinding her teeth in frustration, Felicity turned on the sheepish looking younger girl and hissed, “Thea, Oliver is not a _horse_! I’m not riding him!”

“Well if you don’t, I will,” Thea replied defiantly.

“I'm not even going to mention how suggestive that sounded,” Diggle muttered, exchanging a somewhat resigned look with Roy.

She ignored her boys. “You haven’t even _met_ him!” Felicity protested, throwing her hands up into the air. “He hasn’t even met you! You can’t just -” She cut herself off on seeing the smirk and knowing look on Thea’s face. “Fine. _Fine_!” she grumbled. “I’ll get the measurements to you when you deliver the first test version of the prosthetic on Friday, Roy.”

Thea smiled triumphantly. “We’ll have to go buy you some thermals and body armour. It’s gonna get chilly when you’re flying, and you’ll need some protection just in case there are crashes.”

“Don’t get too ahead of yourself, Queenie,” Diggle chuckled as they made their way out of Roy’s workshop. “The tail fin needs to work first.”

“We’re so going shopping at the weekend, ‘Lis.”

“Oh, no, I am not going shopping with you. I value my sanity, Thea.”

“Okay, calm down there, girls,” Roy chuckled, glancing between them as he escorted them to the Queen family car. “No need to start a cat fight. And Felicity, I’m gonna need to be there when you first try the tail fin on Oliver.”

She instantly sobered. “What?”

“No offense, but you don't exactly know anything of value about mechanics and engineering. I’m gonna need to examine the fit of it and note down any adjustments I need to make.” Roy raised an eyebrow and smirked at Felicity’s somewhat flustered face. “What? Thought you were gonna be able to keep the dragon all to yourself? You’re gonna need him to start trusting humans if you’re serious about this whole dragon rider thing, and the best way to develop his trust with humans will be for him to meet them.”

“Roy’s got a point,” Thea agreed quickly, eyes gleaming as they reached the car.

“You’re only saying that because you really want to meet him and you’ve been bugging me about it from the start,” Felicity replied exasperatedly. But catching sight of Thea and Roy’s faces, specifically the puppy dog eyes they were shooting at her, she sighed. “Fine. You can meet him. All of you. We’ll do it when you deliver the tail, Roy, and we’ll meet at the Foundry, Friday evening.”

“ _Yessss_ ,” Thea hissed in triumph, obviously thrilled with this development, and her enthusiasm with the idea of finally meeting Oliver made both Felicity and Diggle exchange looks with rolled eyes. “This is gonna be awesome!”

“Okay, Queenie, calm down,” Diggle chuckled in amusement, checking his watch as he settled a gentle hand on his shoulder. “It’s getting late, your mom is going to be wondering where you are so I should probably get you home. Felicity, want a lift?”

“Nah, I’m good,” Felicity answered with a soft smile. “My car’s parked around the corner, and there’s no way I’m going to leave my poor little Mini out here in the streets to fend for himself considering what this area’s like.” Very quickly, glancing at Roy, she added, “No offence.”

“None taken,” Roy replied. “See you guys later.”

Felicity lost herself in her own thoughts as she drove back to her apartment, the darkness outside with the occasional blinding flash of a streetlamp lulling her into contemplation.

Once the tail was completed and fitted, would Oliver fly away? Would their friendship be made null, and would he go back to killing mercilessly, forgetting about her completely? Anxiety pooled in her stomach and she bit her lip; maybe her attachment to the dragon was going to cause problems like she had originally worried about - Oliver had made her life so much more purposeful and exciting… if he left it, who knew what state she would be left in.

She was dragged out of her mind when she absentmindedly pulled up into her apartment complex parking lot and found three cars occupying a majority of the spaces. Felicity sat back, dread rushing through her as she recognised all three of them - the police cruiser of her future step-father, one of Tommy Merlyn’s Lamborginis and her best friend Tanya’s four-by-four. She had no doubt that the trio were waiting either outside or even inside her apartment for her.

Gathering her courage, she squeezed her car hazardously into one of the remaining spaces, locked it and made her way into the building as slowly as she possibly could, apprehensive about what was waiting for her. Upon coming to the floor her apartment was on, she found the entrance hallway empty and figured that her three unexpected visitors were waiting inside.

On entering, she was immediately met by three sets of staring eyes. Quentin was making coffee in her kitchen, while Tanya was flipping through TV channels and Tommy had his feet up on her coffee table. The blonde IT girl sent a piercing glare Tommy’s way and his feet swiftly fell back onto the floor with a thunk.

“Where’ve you been?” Quentin questioned in some attempt of a casual voice as she closed the door behind her and dumped her bag and coat on one of her dining table chairs.

“Busy,” she answered shortly. “Why are you here?”

Anger sparked in Quentin’s eyes. “I don’t appreciate that tone of voice, Felicity. You don’t need to be rude. I wanted to check in on you after that whole dragon thing… you seemed shaken,” he finished, his expression of anger falling into one of concern.

“I’m fine,” she responded, feeling a little guilty now about how abrupt she had been. “Really, I am. I appreciate you checking up on me. It’s just… I have some work stuff I need to catch up on -”

“ - I can take a hint,” Quentin cut in with a smirk. “I’ll get out of your hair. But, er, I need to ask you for a favour. Donna wants to get the family together on Friday night, arrange a dinner or a night out or something. She wants you and Laurel to try and bond or something. Sara’s coming down from college too, so...”

Felicity winced. Friday was Oliver’s prosthetic fitting day. “I’ve already got commitments for Friday.”

“Oh.” Quentin looked taken back slightly. “Right. Er. Sorry. How about Saturday then?”

“I can do Saturday,” she replied uneasily. She had been planning on spending the evening with the Night Fury, but maybe she could convince one of the team to stay with him instead, if Oliver took a liking to them, of course.

“Great,” the detective nodded happily. His eyes landed on where Tanya and Tommy were waiting and he threw his thumb at the door. “I’ll get going. You’re clearly gonna be occupied tonight.”

She managed another, “Thanks for dropping by,” before Quentin left, and immediately deflated, rubbing her hands over her face and sighing tiredly. Why was family always so exhausting? She turned to Tanya and Tommy and narrowed her eyes as she gazed between the two of them. “Okay, who wants to go first?”

Tanya piped up before Tommy even opened his mouth, sounding hurt as she reminded Felicity, “Yoga night?”

Dammit. She was right. It was their pre-arranged fortnightly yoga night, and according to her phone, she was already an hour late. Groaning, she said in a small voice, “Raincheck?”

Tanya sighed. “You owe me, Smoak. What’s that work project you mentioned to your dad?”

“Future step-dad,” she corrected once again. “And it’s confidential. Walter Steele gave it to me.” God, it was alarming how easily the lies were spewing out of her mouth. “I promise I’ll make it up to you. I’ll take you for lunch or something on Saturday.”

Her best friend smirked. “I get to pick where we’re going.”

“Oh, no you don’t,” Felicity replied, vehemently shaking her head. “It’s Big Belly Burger or nothing. I’m not taking any of your suggestions after last time.”

“Hey, you enjoyed our lunch date last time!”

“I had an allergic reaction to the peanut oil they cooked the food in and I had to go to hospital!”

“Only for a few hours! It wasn't even overnight!” Seeing how Felicity was unrelenting, Tanya huffed, rising from the couch and stretching out before heading to the door, picking up her yoga mat that had been hidden by the coffee table. “Okay, okay! Big Belly Burger, Saturday. Noon. You better not be late, ‘Lis.”

Her best friend threw her a wink before she departed too, just leaving Tommy, who during her conversation with Tanya had sprawled out over the couch and taken his shoes off, making himself at home. Felicity shoved his feet out of the way as she sat down next to him.

“Oh, so now I get your attention?” Tommy asked cheekily.

“Don’t start, mister,” she scolded. “You never turn up to my apartment in person unless you _a)_ are drunk as hell or _b)_ are hiding from Laurel and need a place to crash, so which one is it tonight?”

Tommy shrugged. “Neither. I need your technical help again.”

“For some reason I doubt that.”

“I'm serious.”

“God, how do you even survive in the 21st Century without me?” She rose to grab one of the cups of coffee that Quentin had made before he had left. Her future step-father had an awful habit of randomly making coffee when he was distracted or waiting, but she didn’t have any complaints against it. She got free coffee. “So what is it this time? No, no, wait, let me guess… Another porn virus? No, I take that back, that’s too mainstream, er... Ooh, ooh, you need me to erase a sex tape from the internet.” She turned to shoot a smile at him, but then frowned when she saw his face. She had expecting a smirk, but instead Tommy was sporting a solemn expression. “Tommy?”

He hesitated somewhat, looking uncomfortable, before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a USB stick, holding it out to her. Curious, she started forwards and took it, taking careful note of the way Tommy shifted uneasily before examining it, narrowing her eyes when she saw the Merlyn Global logo on it.

“Is this your dad’s?” she questioned, confused. “You want me to hack your dad’s files?”

Tommy’s shoulders dropped and he nodded in defeat. “I know it sounds awful but… I don’t trust him. Like, at all. And ever since I found out about Thea being my half-sister, I don’t think I ever will again.” He took a deep breath. “I think he might be hiding something about Thea and he carries that -” He tapped the USB stick in Felicity’s hand. “ - around with him all the time. I stole it from his desk and I figured… that you could get the files off it.”

Felicity was unsure. I mean, sure, she could get the files off of it, but did she really want to get involved in a boatload of Queen-Merlyn family issues when she already had her own family issues to deal with? However, when she glanced at Tommy again, she gave in. He seemed really worried. And since it was about Thea… Thea was her friend. She couldn’t turn this away. And for some insane reason, she already felt protective over the vulnerable young Queen.

She dragged her encrypted laptop out and plugged the USB stick in, motioning for Tommy to come over and sit beside her. She began tapping out code, and was suddenly surprised as she tried getting into the files and folders. “This is above military level encryption. This would take even me days to crack, Tommy.”

“Days we don’t have,” Tommy replied frustratedly. “I need to get that back on his desk by morning or he’s going to know I stole it.”

She used a separate programme that allowed her to copy the whole thing - all the files, the folders, but with the encryption still coded into it. Making sure that there was no trace of her meddling, she handed it back to Tommy. “Okay, look, I can’t promise you anything, but I’ll work on it. If I find anything, I’ll look into it and contact you.” She shot him a sideways look. “You, meanwhile, have got to keep Thea away from Malcolm. If you really don’t trust him… then I don’t either, and I don’t want Thea near him.”

Tommy looked surprised, then teased, “I knew she’d worm her way into her heart. She has a habit of doing that.”

“She’s a good kid,” Felicity responded, smiling softly. “And I don’t want her getting hurt. So please, just protect her. I have a feeling she’s a little lost at the moment and I don’t want her tangled in any more drama than she’s already in.”

Tommy nodded, this time seriously. “I’ll keep an eye on her.” He rose from his seat and patted her on her shoulder, finally giving her his classic Merlyn grin. “You’ve got that work project, so I’ll love you and leave you. Catch you later, Smoaky.”

“Yeah, see you, Merlyn,” she muttered with an eye roll, watching as he made his way to the door and winked in a flirting manner at her that made her scoff as he closed the door behind him.

A comfortable silence fell, and Felicity turned back to her laptop, gazing down at the files and folders she had copied with a sick feeling in her stomach. She had a horrible feeling that this was more than Malcolm Merlyn hiding some information about his daughter from his son. She took one last thorough look at the files, noting the names, dates last edited and size of them, before she slowly shut her laptop lid, one particular file that had the heaviest encryption of all, with nearly a terabyte of data stored just in that singular file, dancing across her mind, the label mocking her.

_THE UNDERTAKING._

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading! Please leave kudos and comment. Feel free to ask questions - I would be delighted to answer them!
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


	4. ~ Part 3 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 3** :  
> \- Meet with your team.  
> \- Allow your team to meet your dragon.  
> \- Allow your dragon bonding time with your team.  
> \- Begin the fitting of the prosthetic tail fin required by your dragon.  
> \- Make note of any adjustments needed.  
> \- Have your dragon test said prosthetic tail fin.  
> \- Get attacked.  
> \- Discover that your dragon? Yeah, might not actually be a dragon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back with Part 3. Once again, thanks to all the amazing support and appreciation I have been receiving for this fanfiction since it's first post. Here is an early chapter for you to enjoy!!
> 
> All your comments are so uplifting and amazing, and they encourage me to write so much faster... if that isn't an incentive for you to comment, I don't know what is :) In all serious though, fanfiction authors love getting comments. I'm not much different. Kudos are awesome as well. And recs. And now I sound greedy. Sorry.
> 
> Hope you enjoy the chapter! (Psst, Genie, bushlaboo, we need to get Masque to break on that issue we were discussing yesterday.)

**_It’s ready._**

* * *

When Felicity received that text on the Team Dragons group chat from Roy on Friday morning, she couldn’t concentrate for the rest of her work day. She distractedly finished some coding and reports with her left hand tapping at her keyboard at lightning speed while her right hand doodled little sketches of a certain Night Fury dragon all over some cafeteria napkins. Thea texted around noon with a range of emojis showcasing her excitement while Diggle was more practical and arranged a meeting time for them all, seven o’clock sharp outside of the Foundry. By the time the end of her work day came around, Felicity was restless, internally ecstatic.

She couldn’t wait to see the look on Oliver’s face when he realised he was going to be able to fly again.

The four of them, Felicity, Roy, Thea and Diggle, had kept in touch throughout the week, Roy keeping the others updated on the progress of the construction of the prosthetic tail; judging by the insane times he texted them at, it was pretty obvious that the young mechanic was working day and night on the contraption that would give Oliver his flight back. Diggle, Felicity and Thea, meanwhile, had decided to build up security around the steel factory, Diggle managing to get his hands on some plywood planks to nail up against the broken windows, CCTV cameras for the perimeter and industrial grade chains and padlocks for the doors. He and Thea had secured the entire area while Felicity had distracted Oliver with a particularly juicy steak. 

Oliver had seemed to notice the change in Felicity’s moods as her anticipation rose over the days approaching Friday. He had been a lot more affectionate lately, more than Felicity would deem usual, immediately rushing up to greet her when she arrived at the Foundry and begging her not to go with wide blue puppy dog eyes when she had to leave. As well as their emotional relationship developing, their ‘physical’ one had developed as well (Thea had teased her mercilessly when she had first called it that). Oliver no longer flinched and cowered from her touch, and now actively sought her presence, pressing up beside her, wrapping a wing around her shoulders and even, to Felicity’s surprise, letting her scatch him under the chin like a dog, which he particularly enjoyed.

Felicity had no doubt that Oliver would be thrilled with the prosthetic. Despite his happy attitude, she knew that he was dying to get up in the air again; occasionally a brief moment of depression would overtake him when he would try to fly quickly towards her to greet her, and found that he could barely make it four feet into the air without crashing to the ground, wings flailing because of his loss of balance. She hated seeing him upset - the low crooning, whining and whimpering noises he made tore at her heart whenever she heard them, and she longed to hear more of his joyful purring and excited chittering and growls more often.

Roy was already waiting outside the Foundry when Felicity arrived dead on seven o’clock. He needed help grabbing what seemed to her like the largest duffle bag she had ever seen out of his trunk, and when she asked to see the prosthetic inside, he just shook his head and said it would be better to wait. He wanted Oliver to be the one to see it first. Felicity smiled when he said that - even without properly meeting him, the other members of Team Dragons were already becoming emotionally attached to the Night Fury.

After fifteen minutes of no Thea and Diggle, however, Felicity was beginning to have her doubts that the other two were even going to turn up.

“Do you think they’re not coming?” Roy questioned quietly, observing her expression as she watched the open entrance gates carefully for even a glimpse of a shiny, expensive black car of some kind.

“Maybe they’re stuck in traffic or something,” she suggested. “I mean, they would have texted to say they weren’t coming if they couldn’t, right?”

“Right,” Roy replied, though he sounded unsure. “Or maybe the pretty rich trust-fund kid decided that going dress-shopping was more worthwhile.” She turned, anger racing through her at his comment and whacked him with force on his arm. “ _Ow!_ What was that for?!”

“What do you have against Thea Queen?” Felicity demanded. “You’ve been constantly bad-mouthing her ever since you met her. I thought you had stopped after our last meeting but nooo, apparently not. So what’s your problem with Thea, Roy?”

“Oh, you mean apart from the fact that she’s never had a job in her life and uses her privilege of having a rich family to rub it in everybody else’s face?” Roy said sarcastically.

She decided to change tactics. “Do you know why I gave Oliver his name?”

Roy shot her a weird look.

“Stay with me on this,” she warned him, before taking a breath and starting: “When Thea was younger, she was emotionally and physically abused at school. It was bad. I presume she didn’t want to tell her parents about it because they would just wave money at the problem and she knew that it would make the bullying worse. She made up and told her bullies that she had a big brother called Oliver who would destroy them if they hurt her again.”

Roy looked surprised, but his expression had softened. “I didn’t know that.”

“Thea doesn’t like to tell people,” Felicity said. “And I’m telling you, in confidence that you will not share this with anybody else, because right now Thea _needs us_. She needs friends who aren’t just pretending to be friends with her because they want money or expensive gifts. She needs you, Diggle and I.” Her lips quirked. “She needs Oliver. They have matching suspicious scowls, the signature suspicious Queen look. Oliver reminded me of Thea when I first met him. Because just like her, he’s hurting inside and is putting up a brave front, but desperately needs help.”

Roy didn’t seem to know how to respond to that. They stood in an uncomfortable, forced silence for a moment, before the young mechanic jerked his head towards the Foundry’s entrance doors and said, in a raspy voice, “You should probably prepare him to meet us. That is, if Thea and Dig turn up. Which I expect they will, in a few minutes.”

She nodded. It was Roy’s subtle way of asking to be alone. He probably needed time to process what Felicity had just told him. She knew that she had needed a few minutes to compose herself once Thea had left her office after they had first met and Thea had told Felicity her story. Shooting him a thin smile, she unlocked the massive padlock holding the Foundry doors closed and slipped inside.

At first, in the gloomy darkness settled over the room, she couldn’t see Oliver, but she reckoned that was just because of his camouflaged blackish scales. But when she flipped the lights on, he wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Her heartbeat spiked - _shit, did I lose my dragon?_ But then there was a cheerful chirping noise and Felicity glanced upwards in shock; somehow the Night Fury had miraculously managed to clamber up into the support beams of the steel factory and was now perched above her, wings flapping excitedly as his bright cerulean eyes blinked down at her.

“How did you get up there, mister?” she questioned with a sigh, crossing her arms and raising an eyebrow, trying to project annoyance when really she was very greatly amused. “I thought you couldn’t fly.”

He made a sound that kind of resembled cackling, ear plates twitching as he jumped across to another support beam, whole body wiggling and his tail whipping back and forth; Felicity couldn’t hold back her laugh. Oliver perked up and rumbled happily at her, readying himself to try and glide down to land beside her, wings spreading out slightly.

Catching on to his plan, Felicity started worriedly, “Oliver, be -” He leapt down, wings catching the air but without his tail to balance him, he collided with the ground sharply, landing with a crunch and a groan, “ - _Careful_!” She rushed over to him and placed a supportive hand on a wing joint as the Night Fury heaved himself to his feet. “Are you okay?”

He gave a low hum in response, butting his head into her other hand as if to reassure her he wasn’t hurt. After a few seconds of fussing, Oliver began sniffing Felicity carefully, circling and nudging until he sat on his haunches in front of her, making a small curious sound and tilting his head sideways.

“Sorry, I don't have any food with me,” Felicity smiled. But when he didn't make a disappointed or disgruntled noise to answer that like she would have expected, she frowned. “You aren't hungry?”

As if replying, Oliver shifted on his hind legs and turned to look pointedly at the Foundry doors. Felicity mouthed an ‘OH!’ as she realised what he was saying - he could smell Roy on her, and could probably hear or sense him somehow waiting outside the warehouse. The dragon cocked his head the opposite way, chirping, as if questioning why Roy was there.

“He has a present for you.” Oliver narrowed his cobalt eyes, pupils constricting. “And yes, that means you’re going to have to meet him. Thea and Diggle too. You remember them? I've told you enough about them over the last few days.”

He huffed, that classic suspicious Queen look passing over his face again. He seemed somewhat unsure about the idea of meeting other humans, and the worry and fear swimming in his eyes told her that he had reasons for that. She supposed that after being despised, hunted, shot down and crippled, the Night Fury would be afraid of humans - after all, she was the only human he properly knew, and he probably thought that the rest of them wanted to hurt and kill him.

“They’re really nice,” she assured him, reaching her hands out and her smile widening when Oliver pushed his snout into them with a purr, letting her scratch more under his chin. “I promise they won’t hurt you. They’re trying to help us.” She didn't know when Oliver and I had transformed into an us in her mind, but it felt good to say. “I'll be with you the entire time.”

He huffed again but settled back, waiting, and Felicity took that as reluctant agreement. She moved over to the door and stuck her head out, ready to call Roy in, but then caught sight of Thea and Diggle walking up the path towards the Foundry. Shooting an apologetic glance towards Oliver, whose ear plates flicked up and he made a small noise of confusion, Felicity slipped out of the door and shut it quietly behind her.

“You’re late,” Roy commented, crossing his arms as Thea and Diggle approached.

Thea, strangely, looked a little angry. “Yeah, sorry. Mom didn’t believe Digg and I when I said that I had to meet Felicity at her apartment to work on my article and decided it would be a good idea to give me another twenty minute lecture on how people try and use me to get money.”

“ _Wow._ Your mom really doesn’t have a high opinion of me, does she?” Felicity replied flatly.

“Oh, Walter shut her down,” Thea reassured her. “He really approves of you. But Mom just really annoyed me. Especially since she accused me of bribing Digg.”

“That kind of offended me too,” Diggle huffed. “I mean, seriously, she thought I was taking money from a teenager to keep quiet? _Puh-lease._ ”

“Just ignore her. That’s what I do most of the time, anyway.” Thea turned to Felicity, plastering excitement and anticipation onto her face to try and mask her fury at her mother. “So do I get to meet Oliver now?”

Felicity nodded with a smile. “Yeah, but remember he’s going to be on edge, so no sudden movements or anything, okay? And certainly no attempting any touching or anything until he’s comfortable.”

“Sure,” Roy agreed, sounding a little impatient. “Can we see the dragon now?” He lifted up the duffel. “I’m so pumped for him to see this.”

Holding her breath, Felicity led the three of the other members of Team Dragons into the Foundry, ensuring the door was closed securely behind them before moving forwards. As soon as they entered, Oliver was on his feet, crouched defensively; with his teeth bared, pupils slitted and wings half-spread threateningly, his movements stiff and restricted, the Night Fury slightly slunk backwards to allow the humans to move more into the dark room.

Thea, Roy and Diggle were all gazing at the dragon wide-eyed, stunned and amazed and awed all at the same time. While Diggle and Roy looked wary as well, recognising how dangerous and lethal the Night Fury was immediately, Thea seemed more intrigued by his beautiful eyes, taking a few steps forwards sub-consciously, wanting to get closer to him. But sensing this, Oliver tensed and let out one of the fiercest growls Felicity had ever heard, forcing her to instantly step in just in case Oliver reacted in the wrong way to his new visitors.

“Hey, _hey_ , it’s alright,” she told him softly, hurrying over to him swiftly and resting one hand on what could have counted as his shoulder. “They’re friends. They’re not going to hurt you.” He was still glaring at the three humans, but at least he had relaxed some, his ear plates flat against his skull and pupils now dilated a little to show he was still suspicious but less so than before. Felicity turned back to her friends with a wobbly grin. “So, guys… This is Oliver.” When they didn’t say anything, she prompted, “Aren’t you going to introduce yourselves?”

“Right,” Diggle picked up immediately. “John Diggle, but most people call me Diggle, Dig to my friends. It’s, uh… an honour to meet you, Oliver.” He gave a nod of respect, and Felicity gave him a one handed thumbs up to show her approval.

At Felicity’s pointed look, Roy piped up, “Roy Harper. Same,” awkwardly, shifting on his feet with one hand in his red hoodie’s pocket and the other holding the duffel bag.

“I’m Thea Queen,” Thea beamed, waving at him. “I’ve been so exited to meet you, Oliver, and can I just say, you are absolutely _magnificent_!”

Oliver blinked at Thea in bemusement before turning back to Felicity with a snort. She nodded encouragingly. With a low whine, the Night Fury inched forwards, still sniffing cautiously, until he was about a metre in front of Thea, not willing to approach any further. Thea looked like she just wanted to leap forwards, wrap her arms around his neck and hug the hell out of him, but was restraining herself.

“That’s great, Oliver,” Felicity praised him happily, striding up beside him and watching the dragon as he shifted on his paws to tuck his wings in, gazing at Thea intently with his massive cobalt eyes, but no longer appearing scared or apprehensive of her. “See? I told you they’re friendly.” Felicity’s eyes flickered to Thea’s warm brown ones. “You ready to touch him now? I think he might let you.”

Thea nodded, grinning.

“Okay, turn your head away so you’re not looking at him,” Felicity instructed, moving around so she was standing on the side between Thea and Oliver. “And then put your hand out. But don’t go to him, he has to come to you.” She glanced sharply up at Roy and Diggle. “I hope you two are listening, you’re gonna have to do this too.”

Thea did as Felicity instructed, her hand hovering in the air in front of Oliver. For a brief moment Felicity thought that the Night Fury was going to bolt, Oliver’s eyes blowing wide with panic as he tensed, wings spreading out again, but then Felicity hushed him quietly, soothingly. He quietened at her voice but still looked unsure at whether or not he should let this strange human touch him or not. After a lengthy internal debate, however, it seemed that Oliver’s curiosity won over - with a rumbling purr, he closed his eyes and pressed his snout into her hand. Thea’s eyes immediately shot open and she turned to gaze at where she was making contact with the deadly winged creature in astoundment.

Both Roy and Diggle looked impressed and shocked as well. Ten minutes later, after Oliver had decided that they too were to be trusted by pushing his snout into their hands, it was clear that they could now see why Felicity was so enamoured and fascinated by the Night Fury. Oliver’s reactions were far too human for him to be considered a lethal, uncontrollable feral animal.

The fact that he was able to bond with the three of them so quickly seemed to astonish them as well; it was clear that out of the three new humans, Oliver had a particularly softer spot for Thea, maybe because of how the young Queen acted around him, always making sure he was the centre of attention, which he preened under. Diggle the dragon more treated like an equal, while Roy he was more wary of, but maybe that was because of the duffel Roy was holding.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Roy announced, dumping the duffel on the ground and opening it up, rooting through it. “And here we go.”

They gathered around to get a proper look at it, creating a wide space at one side so Oliver could slink forwards to see as well, making a soft noise. At first Felicity didn’t understand it, just seeing a mess of intricate wires and cogs and a strangely shaped piece of black fabric but then Roy reached out and spread the fabric out and Felicity gasped; it looked exactly like Oliver’s tailfin. Roy smirked at her gasp and then swiftly explained how all the pieces attached and how the mechanisms worked before lifting the contraption up into his arms and passing off to Felicity.

“W-wha -” Felicity stammered.

“You’re putting it on him,” Roy told her.

“Roy, I barely understood everything you just said, I can’t put it on him!” she hissed. “What if I accidentally hurt him or something?”

“You seriously think your dragon’s going to let a stranger he just met a few minutes ago fiddle around with his tail and attach something to it?” Diggle commented dryly, arms crossed. “Roy’ll instruct you through it.”

Felicity sighed. She obviously wasn’t going to win this one. Taking the prosthetic tail from Roy and grimacing - it was a lot heavier than she thought it was going to be. It took a while to get Oliver in the correct position because whenever she tried to keep his tail still, he turned and moved around to nuzzle at her hair affectionately or tried to see what she was doing, but eventually she got him to settle down, laughing the entire time at his inquisitiveness.

With Roy guiding her, she managed to strap the tail on, attaching clips to the leading end of Oliver’s right tail fin and stretching out the fabric before clicking the mechanisms into place and stepping back to observe her work.

Roy shrugged, nodding in approval. “Good job. It looks nice.”

“It looks amazing,” Thea corrected, beaming delightedly, clapping her hands together. “Hey, Oliver, what do you think?”

Oliver swung his tail around, staring suspiciously at the new attachment to his tail with narrowed blue eyes before letting out a thundering growl, chasing after his tail with a vengance, snapping his teeth at the prosthetic. Felicity immediately voiced her protest with a shout as she and the other three had to duck and swerve to avoid being hit and knocked over. But then, suddenly, Oliver snapped his right tail fin out and the prosthetic snapped out alongside it, mirroring its movements and the Night Fury froze, ear plates flicking up and eyes widening incredulously.

“There you go,” Felicity told him with a thin smile as Oliver began opening and closing it, watching the fins move simultaneously as he tested the prosthetic by fanning it out.

She expected him to whip around and smother her in joy and happiness then, telling her how grateful and thankful he was, maybe even thanking Roy, Diggle and Thea as well with nuzzles and head butts, but to her surprise, Oliver did the exact opposite. Instead of rejoicing, the dragon appeared frustrated. He watched his tail fins open and close concurrently for another few seconds and only seemed to become even more irritated.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” she asked in concern.

Oliver snarled, baring his teeth. He very quickly started prowling around the four of them, showing them his tail, fanning it and closing it, as if trying to emphasise a point. Felicity was confused, and on turning and seeing the matching bewilderment on Roy, Diggle and Thea’s faces, she knew it wasn’t something she had missed. Oliver was, for some reason unknown to them, annoyed at his new prosthetic tail fin.

“What’s the matter?” she questioned, frowning, still not understanding. He unleashed another spine-tingling growl, opening and closing the tail a lot faster now, with little yips and snarls to go along with each movement. Felicity shook her head. “I’m sorry, Oliver… I - I don’t understand. Is there something wrong with it? Do you not like it?”

“Great to know my work is appreciated,” Roy huffed.

“No, it’s…” Felicity shook her head again, still puzzled. “Why does he keep opening and closing it? Is there an angle wrong? Is it the weight or density or something?”

“Maybe he can tell a difference between the aerodynamic ability of each fin,” Thea suggested.

Diggle raised his eyebrows. “Get you, Thea, going all physics nerd on us.”

She scowled. “I’m just saying. If the tail’s that important in flight, for balance and steering and turns and stuff, then maybe it needs to be a specific weight... with a specific way air passes over and under it.”

Oliver was still dancing around the room angrily, throwing his tail around and snapping open the mechanisms, furious that the humans weren’t able to comprehend what was wrong. Felicity was worried for a moment that the Night Fury was going to become violent, especially since he still didn’t trust Thea, Diggle and Roy completely. Finally, Oliver seemed to calm slightly by standing directly next to Roy, thrusting his tail in front of his face and very, very slowly opening and closing the tail, so the young mechanic could see the cogs and wires working.

Roy’s eyes widened in realisation and he gave a soft, “ _Oh!_ ”

“What?” Felicity questioned instantly, darting forwards and taking hold of his arm, demanding to know what was wrong. “What is it, Roy?”

“It’s the prosthetic tail,” Roy answered feebly, his shoulders dropping as he ran one hand over his face in self-disappointment.

“What about it?” Diggle prompted.

“The - tail -” Roy waved a hand at it absentmindly. “I designed it thinking that Oliver would just need to get up into the air and turn but - with that sort of design, with the fins moving concurrently… I’m sorry, I just realised there’s almost no freedom of movement of his fins. They can’t move independently at all.”

Thea’s mouth popped open in an ‘O’ shape as she too picked up on Roy’s line of thought. “And there are some instances in flight when you need the fins to operate independent of one another, like when doing tight turns, rolls and side dives…”

“Exactly.” It hurt Felicity to see that much self-hatred in Roy’s eyes. He glanced up at Felicity with a pleading look. “I can do better. I can fix it, work on something else… a prosthetic fin that can move independent of the other one, but it’ll need to be controlled externally, which basically means it’s going to have to be operated manually -”

“ - by a rider,” Felicity finished. She set a gentle hand on Roy’s shoulder, telling him gently, “Roy, it’s fine. Honestly. None of us realised either. And I mean… what you’ve done already is amazing. Even if _somebody_ -” She shot Oliver a glare and he keened under it, blue eyes blinking apologetically, “ - doesn’t think so.” Rolling her eyes, Felicity added, “I guess this means now that I can’t get out of this whole dragon rider thing, huh.”

Roy lit up. “Hey, I could rig a line up the saddle… maybe make a pedal or something that can control a wire line that pulls the tail in and out of alignment, stuff like that. It could still fit in with this design so he can fly independently, it just means that to do more complex moves he’ll need you riding him and pulling the tail into position and stuff.”

Felicity grimaced, turning back to glance at Oliver, who was now seated on his haunches in the centre of the room next to Thea, sniffing her hair and her clothes with the young Queen giggling as the brushes of his snout tickled her. “And you’re sure there’s no way you could make that so it’s Oliver controlling it?”

Roy shook his head. “No, sorry.” He followed Felicity’s gaze to the Night Fury, his expression softening. “If you’re worried about Oliver not being okay with you controlling him… I think he’ll be fine with it.”

“Yeah, he’s intelligent,” Digg picked up, shrugging his shoulders heavily. “He’ll understand to have one tail fin independent of the other, the prosthetic needs to be manually controlled. And I can’t think of anybody else he’d prefer riding him,” he added on the end with a wry smile.

Felicity groaned. “So many innuendos…”

Roy laughed. “I’ll work on the prosthetic,” he promised. “For now though, I’m pretty interested in seeing whether or not this current one can get him up into the air. And let him stay there for a while. I mean, he might as well test this one out now it’s made, right?”

“Good idea,” Felicity approved before calling over to Oliver, “Want to try out the new tail fin?”

He snorted in excitement, rearing his head up and beating his wings in tandem, cobalt eyes shining. Thea ran over to join them as they backed away, babbling about how the Night Fury was capable of vertical take-off, as Oliver steadied himself, stretching out his wings and whipping his tail about, the prosthetic glinting in the sharp arteficial lights.

Before Felicity could even properly prepare herself, Oliver leapt into the air, flapping crazily with his tail fins flared. Due to the height of the Foundry he only made it about fifteen feet into the air, his flight wobbly and shaky like a fledgling bird’s, but for a few incredible seconds he remained hovering in the air, wings buffeting the air and sending great gusts of dust up from the ground that made the four humans splutter and cover their mouths.

When the dust settled again, the room becoming clear, and Felicity caught sight of Oliver hanging in the air, she punched the air with a triumphant shout, despite the fact that she could see that he was struggling to stay aloft.

But Felicity had succeeded in her original goal. She had promised Oliver that she would allow him to fly again. This, although unsteady, was still flight. The Night Fury was up in the air again. Elation swept through her as she saw Thea clapping her hands excitedly with a squeal, Diggle clapping much more sincerely and Roy looking absolutely thrilled.

But then the amazing moment shattered. Oliver beat his wings too hard and flew too high, and his right wing collided with the roof of the Foundry, knocking him off balance. With an outraged and startled bellow, he crashed into the ground, flipping over twice before coming to a stand still. Concern rushed through her and Felicity immediately tried to hurry forwards to check on him, and comfort him, as he was bound to be upset. Except Oliver surged to his feet and, giving a frustrated snarl, he stormed away into the darkest corner and collapsed into a heap, draped in shadows.

Roy turned to Felicity with a raised eyebrow, “Yeah, I can see with those tamper tantrums why he reminds you of Thea.”

“Hey!” Thea scowled.

Felicity rolled her eyes, striding towards towards the dragon with her arms crossed. “He’s just upset he couldn’t maintain the flight. And -” she raised her voice as she came to a halt directly beside Oliver and prodded her foot into his spine, causing him to open one blue eye at her and give a soft growl, “ - he’s obviously extremely childish and doesn’t know how to say thank you to the humans that helped him get back into the air again.”

With a low rumble of apology, Oliver uncurled from the shadows, rose slowly and butted his snout into her hands. Felicity smiled in approval as his big cerulean eyes blinked at her before he moved off to hesitantly nudge Diggle, Thea and Roy in thanks.

“That’s better,” she said softly as Oliver returned to her, sitting on his haunches beside her with his ear plates pressed back. “See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?” Oliver humphed before cuffing her arm with his wing. Shooting him a playful glare, she knelt down to start unbuckling the prosthetic tail, and when Oliver tried to pull his tail away with a whine of confusion, she told him firmly, “I need to take it off so Roy can make some adjustments. You’ll get it back soon, I promise.” He finally let her take it off and hand the contraption back to Roy with a sulky expression.

It took another twenty minutes for Felicity to take measurements of Oliver’s back, guided by Roy, so the young mechanic could start making prototype saddle and harness for the tail. Oliver was reluctant at first to allow Felicity to measure his sides under his wings and down his spine, but the blonde IT girl got Thea, since Oliver appeared more fond of her than Dig or Roy, to stand by Oliver’s head and scratch under his chin, distracting him slightly.

Roy looked over the pages of notes he had been taking while Felicity read out the measurements and he nodded, looking up at her with a grin quirking his lips. “All done. I should have the first versions of the saddle and harness finished by next Friday, maybe even manage to get the new prosthetic rigged up to it as well.” He cast a glance towards Diggle. “I’m going to need a whole new bunch of materials -”

Thea reached out into her pocket and handed a credit card she pulled out to Diggle. “You know the pin number,” she told him with a roll of her eyes. “Get him whatever he needs.” Her mobile pinged and she slipped it out of her pocket to quickly glance at it, and gave an exasperated sigh. “It’s my mom. She wants to know when I’ll be home.”

“Looks like that’s our cue to get going,” Diggle smirked. He shook Roy’s hand firmly before giving Felicity a swift one armed hug, turning to Oliver and dipping his head in respect. The Night Fury made a soft noise in response, lowering his head also in mutual respect. “Come on, Thea, let’s get you back home before your mom fires me.”

“Like I would ever let that happen,” Thea threw back, throwing her arms around Oliver’s neck and ignoring him when he stiffened, wings raising up a little defensively. “Nice to meet you, Oliver. See you soon!”

They departed, Roy following a few minutes later, making the excuse that it was getting late and he needed to get some sleep so he could get up early and finish some work on a car so he could get going on the saddle and harness project, sniping at Felicity playfully about her needing to get some thermals for next week. Felicity stuck her tongue out at him in reply, and then she too had to make her farewells to Oliver. She did, afterall, have that lunch planned with Tanya and an exhausting evening ahead of her with her mother and future-step family. Oliver was unhappy to see her go, as he always was, dancing and prowling around her with little yips and growls and trying to stop her from getting to the door, but she made it out after she promised to visit in the morning.

“Goodnight Oliver,” she told him gently, casting one last look into the darkness of the Foundry and smiling at the sight of the Night Fury seated in the middle of it with his wings folded and head tilted sideways as he blinked at her.

And as she closed the doors of the warehouse securely behind her, she could have sworn she had heard a response:

_Goodnight Felicity._

* * *

The amazing thing about Saturdays was that Felicity was able to have a lie-in. She usually didn’t have lie-ins at all, especially with her work-load and being expected to arrive at Queen Consolidated to begin her tedious job of an IT girl at nine, so when the opportunities came, she grabbed them with both hands and held them to her chest. But as Felicity woke up, pleasantly wrapped in her duvet with her curtains blocking the streams of sunlight that would have otherwise been falling onto her face like some stupid cliche, she was immediately hit by guilit.

She scrambled for her phone and ended up half on the floor, half on the bed. In the end, she gave up and rolled off so she was lying on the cold floor on top of her pillow, scowling at the number of emails she had recieved overnight and then frowning at the time. It was nine thirty. So it wasn’t that much of a lie-in, she figured. Thea probably usually stayed in bed most weekends until noon. But Felicity groaned, because she had promised Oliver she would visit him in the morning and he was most probably starving, waiting for his breakfast but also fretting about where she was.

Forcing herself to shower quickly and change into jeans and her warmest sweater, Felicity grabbed a pre-packaged waffle, one that Tommy had left in her cupboard when he had last stayed over on the couch, eating it in disgust as she drove to the Foundry, picking up a few slabs of steak from a local Glades store next to where she briefly stopped at a cafe for coffee.

Oliver was pacing the length of the Foundry agitatedly when she made it there. His tail was whipping back and forth like a prowling jaguar’s, his ear plates pressed flat to his skull but occasionally twitching, showing he was still listening out, his pupils half-slitted in his cobalt eyes. They snapped to her when Felicity entered, quietly closing the door behind her and he let a deep rumble erupt from his throat.

“Sorry I’m late, Oliver,” she apologised. “I slept in; guess I must be more tired than usual. I’ll try and not let it happen again, but knowing me it probably will. I’m the most sleep-deprived person I know… does that even make sense? Well, whatever, I brought your breakfast.”

She expected the Night Fury to perk up at that, chirp happily, but Oliver’s distress didn’t fade, and actually seemed to intensify on seeing her. He bounded towards her and started relentlessly butting his head into her stomach and chest, growling faintly in his concern. Felicity’s anxiety grew when she realised he was trying to force her back towards the doors, out of the Foundry.

“Oliver, what’s wrong? You want me to leave?” He gave a miserable rumble of agreement. “Why? Are you upset with me? Did I do something wrong?” The dragon gave a sharp bark at that of fury, and she knew it was his way of telling her, No, never! “What is it? You’re really worrying me here.”

The Night Fury fell down onto his paws and made a keening, whining noise, before he rose again and restarted his attempt at getting her to leave. Felicity was almost pushed over by the force of one particular shove, and when she wobbled, he immediately caught her with his body, supporting her as he made a soft, worried noise, but as soon as Felicity was steady on her feet he returned to trying to push her out.

“ _NO!_ ” Felicity finally shouted, whipping around and bringing her assertive, commanding side out as she pointed at him forcefully and said, “I am not leaving, Oliver, until you explain why you want me to! And I understand that you’re a dragon and you can’t talk, but that does _not_ mean you can’t find another way to communicate with me! So I _refuse_ to leave, mister!”

Oliver cowered a little at her voice, growling under his breath, and Felicity relaxed slightly as he blinked at her, his big blue eyes conveying an apology, but then suddenly he shot up into a defensive position with an angry snarl. His wings spread out and he beat them several times, gnashing his teeth as he let out a screech-like roar, rearing back onto his hind feet in front of her before he swept around and herded her forcefully to the other side of the Foundry.

“Whoa, what are you -” He gave her another particularly hard push that almost sent her to her knees. “Oliver, _stop it_! What’s gotten into you?!”

He snarled at her, gnashing his teeth.

“Don’t you snarl at me, Mr Bossy,” Felicity snapped. He butted her with his head again and she tried to dodge but ended up colliding sharply with the wall, bruising her elbow. Oliver gave anothe growl, and her pulse spiked. “Oliver, stop it, you’re scaring me, okay?”

But the Night Fury didn’t stop, in fact he only seemed to become fiercer, his occasional growls and snarls combining to a constant, deep, ferocious rumble. Seeing Oliver acting so crazy, like an actual wild dragon, sent a pulse of fear arching through her body, her heart beat kicking up. What was wrong with Oliver? What if he suddenly turned and attacked her?

Before Felicity could even process what was going on, the Foundry doors burst open, flooding the room with light, and intense gunfire sounded. Oliver leapt onto her, sending her sprawling to the floor with a few bruises along the way, and he let out another feral roar as he spread his wings, facing their attackers head-on.

Felicity hurriedly tried to straighten her glasses, and caught a glimpse of a group of gunmen dressed in black and Kevlar, automatic machine guns in their hands as they fanned out in the kicked open entrance doors to the Foundry, taking up a diamond formation before they started to fire again. Bullets flew uncontrollably around the room, rebounding off of the walls and Felicity was pretty certain and few of them actually hit Oliver’s wings. She screamed, wrapping her hands over her head protectively and curling up as small as she possibly could, Oliver’s massive body acting as a shield but a few bullets still skimmed past her, too close for comfort.

The men paused in their assault to reload their weapons. Oliver took his chance. With a mighty battle cry, the Night Fury bounded forwards, wings arched like an avenging angel’s as he opened his mouth and fired what looked like balls of lilac energy, compact little blasts of lightning and flames. They exploded upon impact with the masked attackers, sending them flying back with shrieks of pain, while Oliver whipped his tail around and knocked other men into the walls, his wings snapping out to slam into a few more.

Felicity’s head span as she tried to get to her feet. She knew she had to escape, leg it and get out of the Foundry to safety and away from their attackers as soon as possibly, but she collapsed back onto her elbows, her vision whiting in and out. Her dizziness and unexpected partial loss of vision yelled concussion at her, but she still had to get out.

She heard footsteps. Tensing, she tried to raise her fists as she looked upwards, blinking crazily to try and force her eyes to focus. The figure was blurry at first, but with each blink, he came into focus more, making her more confused.

“Felicity,” came a rough man’s voice, like it hadn’t been used in a long time. “We have to get out of here.”

With a pang of panic over how this stranger knew her name, her eyes finally focused enough for her to get a good look at him. He was tall, lean, and muscular as well, very well built with a killer set of abs accompanied by stubble and calloused hands, and she was able to say that because he was completely and utterly naked and he was also holding out a hand to help her up.

Instinctively, she reached out her hand for his. Her fingers curled over his. She slowly raised her eyes up to his face, his beautiful, stunningly handsome face, and as their eyes met, she let out a soft gasp. Immediately she released the hand and fell back onto the floor on her backside, with a humph, staring upwards in stunned amazement.

The man’s eyes were the exact same piercing shade of blue as Oliver’s.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos and comment :) Feel free to ask any questions, I will gladly answer them!
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


	5. ~ Part 4 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 4:**  
>  \- Go into shock.  
> \- Be carried by a naked human (who... is your dragon?)  
> \- Drive you and your dragon to safety.  
> \- Confront your dragon about his shapeshifting abilities.  
> \- Discuss.  
> \- Defend your dragon against intruders.  
> \- Compose a believable cover story.  
> \- Contact the rest of your team for back up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *jumps out* I'm BACK.
> 
> Not really. I've been here the entire time. But I've been really busy lately with work and stuff. So sorry about the late update. I'm really not sure when the next one is going to be either.
> 
> Thanks for all your support and appreciation. Every comment brings a smile to my face, and I squee every week because it keeps on getting bigger and bigger.
> 
> Also - SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION - I wrote a fanfiction where Oliver is transformed into a puppy. The first part can be found on AO3. Check my profile to find it!!

* * *

“What –“ Felicity stuttered, shock passing over her and clouding her mind and judgement. She didn’t move, frozen on the floor. “I – I don’t – _what_?”

“Felicity!” the man repeated, snapping again. His voice was clearer now, not as rough and unused as before, despite the fact he had only said one sentence to her. In fact, Felicity reckoned, his voice was like honey. “We need to get out of here, quickly, okay? Come on!”

“I don’t understand,” she spluttered. “What –“

“You don’t need to understand right now,” the man said urgently. “You just need to move.”

When Felicity made no movement, still just gaping up at the man in utter astonishment, he muttered something under his breath, bent his incredibly naked body and lifted her into his arms bridal style. Felicity let out a squeak as he began running with her, and she immediately wrapped her arms around his neck and clutched to him to make sure he didn’t drop her. The slap of his bare feet against the concrete floor drowned out the groans and pained whimpers of their attackers, the attackers that Oliver had put down.

The man was still running with her in his arms, his eyes focused on something ahead of them as they made it out of the Foundry and into daylight. He didn’t seem at all bothered by his state of undress in public, only looking forwards and making sure she wasn’t slipping in his arms. Which she was being carried in. Realising she was essentially being cradled to an incredibly hansome, incredibly naked man’s chest, she went red in the face, screwing her eyes shut, feeling completely mortified.

Before she could regain control of her mouth due to her state of shock, she whispered, “You’re naked.” Immediately realising what she had said, a deep blush coloured Felicity’s cheeks, groaning.

The man, however, glanced down at her with an indifferent expression. “Yes, I am,” he agreed lowly, his eyes darting upwards again as he searched for something in the street.

Feeling a lot braver then before, Felicity inhaled and exhaled a few times. Now she was out of danger - well, she didn’t have evil men dressed in black like stereotypical bad guys shooting at her anymore - she wanted to know what the hell was going on. “Who were those people?” she asked, her voice shaking.

“Doesn’t matter right now,” the man replied gruffly. “We just have to get out of here. They won’t stay down for long, and we’re not really a match for a dozen or so machine guns.”

Felicity gazed intensely into those blue eyes again. They were, in fact, Oliver’s eyes. Exactly Oliver’s eyes; the same shade of blue, the same amount of intelligence in them. Another wave of shock vibrated through her. This was Oliver. This very naked, very muscular toned man, was her Night Fury.

Shaking, she asked in a small, hesitant voice, “Oliver?”

“Yes?” the man replied, as if it was the easiest thing in the world, responding to that name, as if he didn’t even need to think about it. As if it was actually his name, and it was the most natural thing to reply to it. As if _this human being was actually her dragon._

“Oh my god,” she whimpered. “This cannot be happening.”

He looked down at her with those sharp cobalt eyes, and his expression softened. “Felicity…” He came to a halt. “Do you think you can drive?”

“What?” She was gently set down onto the ground, and reality came suddenly rushing back. He had bodily carried her out of the Foundry, out of the danger zone, and they were now at her little Mini, standing beside it. And the man, _Oliver_ , her mind provided her, was asking her if she could drive them out of here. “Yes, I, um… yes, I can drive.”

“Good,” the man nodded. “Because I was serious about us needing to get out of here. Quickly. We need to get going before those guys wake up and try to follow us.”

“Follow us?” Felicity repeated.

“Yes, Felicity, the guys who just shot at us and tried to kill us will try and follow us,” the man said slowly. “Which is why you need to drive this car –“ He poked the top of the Mini. “ – And get us out of here.”

“Okay,” Felicity squeaked.

She fumbled in her pockets for her car keys for a minute, her hands still cold and numb with shock, until one of the man’s warm, calloused hands stopped her.

“Let me,” he told her. He reached into her pocket himself and drew the keys out carefully, dropping them into her hand.

She managed a shaky inhale and exhale as she closed her eyes for a moment, forcing herself to take on a more logical headset. When she opened them again, she was Felicity Smoak, the most talented QC IT girl, hacker extraordinaire and dragon trainer.

She unlocked her car and opened the driver’s door, preparing to step in. The man opened the passenger door at the same time, looking to clamber in, but now she was in a better state to think, she stopped him with a, “Nuh uh. No way, mister. You’re not getting into my car naked. You need clothes.”

The man looked frustrated. “I don’t exactly have any clothes of my own to wear, Felicity.”

“Well, I’m not letting you in my car in your birthday suit,” Felicity snapped back.

Looking helpless and exposed – and he was, physically, as well as mentally – the man shrugged, giving a minute shake of his head. “So you’re going to leave me here?” he asked dejectedly.

“I’m not going to leave you here,” she rolled her eyes, although she could hear the sense of fear and hurt in the man’s voice that made her heart twinge. “Just wait there.”

She grabbed a blanket she kept in the back seat foot well for emergencies and handed it over to him, averting her eyes. Ever since he had actually first appeared, Felicity had been pointedly avoiding looking anywhere below his belly button. (Although she knew that he had killer abs. Like damn, those were the kind of abdominal muscles a girl wanted to lick chocolate off. Not that - not that she wanted to do that to _him_. Obviously.)

She had already got a good look at the man in all his birthday suit glory, and she figured he did not need some blonde IT girl staring at him when he didn’t have clothes on.

… She couldn’t help it. Felicity snuck a peek. Her breath caught in her thoat. God, he was ripped. Like seriously, seriously ripped. He could give quite of a few of those TV bodybuilders and wrestles a run for their money. She swallowed and tried to force herself to look away as he shook out of the blanket, scattering some fallen leaves on the pavement - but of course, she failed. Because she couldn’t stop looking at him. Especially those abs.

She would feel ashamed, but she knew any other women around would be doing to exact same thing as her - because she wanted to climb the man like a tree. Which was a metaphor that made so sense to her whatsoever, because how did wanting to have sex with somebody equate to climbing a tree? Did people used to climb trees to have sex in? … Did people want to have sex actually with the trees? The blonde shook her head, grimacing, attempting to clear her thoughts. This man was very plainly human and definitely not a tree. And Felicity needed to stop thinking about trees.

It was only then that she noticed the scars. Felicity had been distracted before, in shock, but now she had a clearer head, she startled when she caught sight of the thick, ropey scars littering his torso, evidence of torture and unimaginable pain. The blondetried to swallow as she couldn’t help but sweep her eyes over his chest, taking in the lasting reminder of what looked like brutal beatings, lashings and assault, from knives and guns and who knew what else.

Her eyes fell onto his shoulder and she couldn’t keep her mouth shut as she muttered, “Oh, god…” Because there was a _brand_. He had been _branded_ as somebody’s property. Why would somebody even do that? It was barbaric.

She only stopped gazing at his scars when he made a low, wounded sound and lifted the blanket to his front to cover himself. To hide his scars and the brand, like they were things to be ashamed of.

“I’m sorry,” she apologised immediately, half stammering. “I didn’t mean -”

“It’s fine.” It was anything but fine, in her opinion, and he knew it too. His blue eyes shone with remembered pain and he looked… well, the only way she could possibly put it was haunted. “Please, Felicity, we just need to get out of here.” The man wrapped the blanket around him, covering his extremities before he slid into the passenger seat without another word, waiting for her to get in too.

Felicity climbed into the driver’s seat and as soon as both of the doors were closed, Felicity put her foot down hard. Within minutes they were what she deemed a safe distance away from the Foundry, and she made sure she took a few winding, unmapped alleyways at a high speed and took a route with the least amount of CCTV cameras just to ensure they couldn’t be followed, before she slowed the car to a reasonable speed.

“We should be okay now,” she said lowly. “There’s no way they could have followed us through that route.”

“Yeah, well, you’d be surprised at how persistent they can be,” the man muttered, glancing back through the back windscreen worriedly. “In this instance though, I think you’re right. We’re safe, for now.”

“How did you know those guys were even coming?” she questioned weakly.

He tapped his nose. “Super enhanced senses. I could smell them. And hear them.”

“Right. Right. Obviously.”

They both fell silent, and Felicity couldn’t find the words to continue the conversation. She was still in shock, and her mind was whirring, trying to process everything, but she kept on coming to a mental black whenever she tried to connect this stranger with her dragon.

“Oliver?” she repeated, saying her Night Fury’s name because she still could not seem to believe what was going on.

“Yes?” the man replied again.

She closed her eyes. Took a shuddering breath and let a minute pass, willing herself to wake up if this was a dream, or stop hallucinating if her concussion was worse than she thought it was.

Then, she repeated once again, this time more firmly, “Oliver.”

Oliver turned to her and gave her a very soft, small smile, lips quirking upwards and his blue eyes staring at her as he replied, seeming to realise she needed confirmation that this was actually real, “Yes, Felicity, I’m Oliver.” There was a beat of frigid silence and then Oliver sighed. “I know this must be a lot for you to take in but –“

“Oh, no, discovering that my dragon can transform can into a human being is something that happens to me on a daily basis,” Felicity snapped sarcastically, squeezing the steering wheel with her hands as she took slow, deeper breaths. Staring straight ahead at the road, she questioned flatly, “So, _Oliver_. You’re a Night Fury that can turn into a human.”

“Yes,” came Oliver’s firm reply.

“You can change at will?”

Oliver shrugged. “I switched just now. Sometimes adrenalin can kickstart the turn, but that’s not often.”

“And you decided not to let me know that you could shift into human form. Let me guess, because you thought it would be for my own good, because you were protecting me or you thought that I wouldn’t be able to handle it.”

“… Yes?” Oliver seemed unsure in his response now, his voice weaker.

“I swear to God, Oliver,” Felicity growled, turning on him and glaring, biting her lip when she realised he was cowering under her glower. “Do you even realise how so damn weird this is for me? I think I deserved to know that the dragon I made friends with and was helping gain his flight back can turn into a human! I want a massive explanation for this, with all the details, because right now I am literally on the edge of freaking the hell out and leaving you on the side of the road while I have a mental breakdown!”

There was tense silence in which only Felicity’s harsh breathing could be heard. It seemed as if Oliver didn’t have a response to that at first.

“… Please don’t leave me on the side of the road,” Oliver whispered, a hint of terror and fear in his voice.

Felicity deflated at the slight shake of his voice, feeling awful now for causing that. “Oliver, I wasn’t actually – I wasn’t serious.”

Oliver turned away from her, muttering, “Sounded like you were.”

“You really think I would abandon you alone in the street?” She was actually a little offended. They had been spending quite a lot of time together and sure, he might have been a dragon during that time, but she had figured that he would know her better than to think she would just dump him on his own.

“No,” Oliver murmured. “I know you wouldn’t do that.”

She bit her lip again. It was becoming extremely clear to her that Oliver had insecurities, both in dragon and in human form. Fear of abandonment seemed to be one of them. Calming herself, and changing the subject as to avoid making him any more uncomfortable or upset, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me you were a shape shifter?”

“… It was for your safety?” It sounded more like a question than an answer.

She groaned. “Jesus Christ, Oliver. Please, don’t start.” She paused, letting silence fall again, in which the human beside her shifted nervously, before she questioned quietly, “Why then? Why change, transform into human form, when we were under attack? And don’t say it was for my safety or protection, because you were doing a pretty good job at protecting me in your dragon form. You didn’t need to change.”

“I wanted to tell you,” Oliver admitted, fiddling with her hands. “That’s part of it, I guess. The other part is more complicated, but let’s just say for now that it was to make sure they couldn’t track us.”

Felicity heaved another sigh, wanting to start bashing her head on the steering wheel. This day was just too complicated and stressful for her liking. “Just keep your mouth shut until we reach my apartment, please? Or until we get you some proper clothes. There is no way I’m letting you walk up to my apartment wearing just a blanket… I just need some quiet to process things.”

They sat in silence for additional five minutes before they reached her apartment complex parking lot. She ordered Oliver to wait in her car while she rushed up to grab some sweats from a drawer in her spare bedroom. Sometimes Felicity liked getting bigger spare pairs of sweatpants and shirts for when she had movie marathon days, so she could laze around in them. She never expected to have a man actually wear them, despite the fact that they were probably men’s size.

“They’ll be a little tight on you,” she told Oliver as she opened the passenger door and passed them to him. She still couldn’t get over his looks – of course her dragon in human form would happen to be a hottie. He stood up and dropped the blanket, got out of the car but came to stand behind it so he was hidden. It didn’t help. She still got a look at the goods. Again. For what must have been the sixth time. (And she wasn’t complaining). “You’re really big.” She blushed and quickly added, “I meant – just generally in - in body size, you look like you’d have a big clothes size… I should never talk.”

“Thank you,” Oliver replied in that honey voice with a soft smile, making her insides squirm again. He paused awkwardly. “For the clothes, I mean.”

“Right,” Felicity replied, nodding.

He changed quickly and then Felicity was leading him up to her apartment. She was pretty sure she had a minor concussion due to her sudden bouts of dizziness, and was in shock because she felt cold and her hands were trembling. Upon entering her apartment and locking the door behind Oliver, she headed straight to her kitchen and made herself three espresso shots, which she downed within seconds.

It was only then, after she had drowned herself in coffee, that she returned to the living room, ready to kick and punch the living hell out of the dragon in human form waiting for her there. Upon glancing at him though, she realised that Oliver too was shaking. Not from the cold, but from shock, she realised. Feeling awful for having just ignored him when he was obviously as spooked by the attack by she was, she returned to her kitchen and put milk in a pan, putting it on the stove to heat up to make hot cocoa.

“Sit down,” she advised him quietly when she got back, pressing her hands into his shoulders – damn, he was firm – and pushing him down onto her couch. He was still shaking, gazing down at his hands, and he seemed to be holding back tears. Very hesitantly, she rested her fingertips on his shoulder. When he didn’t flinch, Felicity took that to mean he was okay with being touched. Exhaling, she rubbed one hand over his back slowly, concernedly. “I’m sorry, I didn’t think to ask… are you okay? I mean, I saw you get hit with bullets in your wings a few times.” She swallowed. “God, that sounds strange.”

“I’m fine,” he muttered. “It’s just the adrenalin wearing off.”

She nodded in response, taking a seat beside him so their legs were brushing. Without even realising what or why she was doing it, she reached over and took one of his hands. Instantly, his cerulean eyes skipped up to her, and she couldn’t help but inhale sharply as she gazed into them, noting the wisdom and strength buried there, but also the tremendous pain and suffering.

“Is it okay if I still call you Oliver?” she questioned. “Do you have another name you’d prefer to be called by?”

“Unless you mean Subject 141,” Oliver replied at a mutter, his voice dark. Horror spread through her at that, but he didn’t give her time to dwell on it, continuing, “No, Oliver’s fine. It’s the only real name I’ve ever really been given.”

“Okay. How is this all possible, Oliver?” she asked softly. “I just want to understand… how it’s even possible for a dragon to also be a human and be able to switch between forms… I mean, is that even science? Is it magic?”

“It’s science,” Oliver replied tiredly. “It’s definitely science.” He looked down at his hands again. “I know I owe you an explanation… this is going to take a pretty long time to tell.”

Meaning that he would need a few hours of her time. Felicity reached into her pocket and with a heavy sigh and a wince, she texted Tanya that she wasn’t going to be able to make it to their lunch because she had food poisoning. Then, as an afterthought, she texted Quentin that she wasn’t feeling well so whether or not she would turn up for the Smoak-Lance family dinner would depend on how she was feeling later.

“We’ve got a clear afternoon,” she told Oliver as she tucked her phone away. “So explain away.”

Oliver shifted on his seat, frowning. Felicity recognised the look on his face instantly – he was internally debating with himself where he should start. She took the opportunity to take the warmed milk off the stove and pour it into two mugs, stirring in cocoa powder and sugar. She dropped in a few animal-shaped marshmallows before she sat back down next to Oliver, pressing one of the mugs into his hands.

He sipped absentmindedly as he began, “I’m a genetically engineered dragon-human hybrid. My DNA’s half human, half dragon. I don’t know how they managed to get the DNA arranged to the point where I can shift between both forms at will. They never let me know much, because they feared I’d use it against them, I guess.”

He set the mug down on the coffee table before settling back, lacing his fingers together and refusing to make eye contact with her as he explained, “According to my file, I was kidnapped when I was a very, very young baby from my parents, who were on a business trip in China, by a secret Chinese genetic research organisation that was working on creating the perfect weapon, a human dragon hybrid.

“Thousands of babies were kidnapped to be experimented on, and thousands of embryos were created from harvested sperm and egg cells. Very, very few of us survived the experimentation process, and if we did, we were raised in a controlled environment and taught to kill… taught to listen to commands, obey our owner, think tactically and attack when ordered.

“Two years ago, I and my friends there attempted to escape. We managed it too, for a few days, but we were captured again… they realised that we were too uncontrollable, too reckless and feral to completely yield to commands, so they killed them.” Oliver’s eyes filled with tears as he choked out, “I had to watch as they shot all of my friends, every last one of them in their heads, one by one, as if we were nothing more than cattle to be slaughtered.”

“Oh, Oliver,” Felicity whispered, shifting closer and placing one reassuring hand on his arm. His story was far worse than she could have ever thought. It was a sheer miracle he was even sane, if he had truly seen his friends and comrades slaughtered mercilessly in front of him. “I’m so sorry.”

“They were about to kill me too,” he told her, his voice strengthening as he angrily wiped away his tears. “They would have done. I guess they were keeping me for last because I was the one who orchestrated the escape, and they wanted me to see them all dying, make me suffer before they put me out of their misery. But then a sales bid came in. Somebody wanted to buy me. The organisation was bankrupt anyway… the American authorities had caught onto them and they were going to be shut down. They had nothing left to lose.” He crumpled against her shoulder, leaning into her as he whispered, as if it was a horrific memory, “They sold me on the black market for $10 billion dollars.”

Felicity’s heart swelled. She wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her side, into her embrace. She didn’t care at that moment that this was a dragon that could turn into a human, that had lied to her and she felt awkward around him because of that. Right now, Oliver was hurting, and he needed comfort. She was the only person able to give it to him.

“Who did they sell you to, Oliver?” she asked softly. “Do you even know?”

“Oh, I know,” Oliver shuddered. “They took great pleasure in making sure I knew exactly who I belonged to.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “The brand. The - the scars. That was -” She felt sick.

“To put me in my place,” he said lowly, voice weighted with the memories. “To make sure I knew that - he owned me. That I was his property, and he could do anything he wanted with me. He didn’t like disobedience and he definitely didn’t like escape attempts.”

“He?” Felicity whispered.

“Malcolm Merlyn.”

Those two words washed over her like ice. She immediately tensed up, astounded by this information, but equally completely horrified. Thea’s father, Tommy’s father, had bought Oliver like a slave and then had, from what she could tell from Oliver’s words, destroyed him over and over just to make a point that Oliver was his possession. And then, as soon as she accepted the horror of that situation, the anger came. The absolute fury that Merlyn would buy a person and take pleasure in hurting them repeatedly just to rub it in that they were a slave, captured and ensnared, never to be free.

“Those men that attacked us… they work for Malcolm Merlyn?” Felicity questioned, her voice a mere whisper. “I thought at first they were police or IDCO, but…”

“No, they were men working for Merlyn,” Oliver responded quietly. “He’s the only one able to track me, so it’s logical that he sent those men to apprehend me again.”

“What did Merlyn buy you for?” Felicity asked stiffly. “I presume it wasn’t just because he wanted…” She trailed off. She had originally planned on saying because he wanted a trophy pet, but that would be unnecessarily cruel to Oliver. “Before I met you, you were flying around killing the criminals and the corrupt of this city. He bought you for that? To be his personal fire-breathing killing machine? A winged assassin he could sic on people he didn’t think deserved to live?”

“Sort of,” Oliver replied, a tremor still in his voice but less so than before. “He gave me this list… a book, and it had hundreds of people’s names in it. They’re all bad people, obviously, criminals and gangbangers and corrupt executives, but everything he’s made me do, every human he’s forced me to kill, it’s been a distraction for the police and government; a distraction to stop them from figuring out his bigger plan. And it’s been succeeding.”

A horrible feeling came over Felicity. “Oliver, what’s this plan called? Do you know what it’s about? Has he told you anything about it?”

Oliver fixed his piercing eyes on her. “It’s called The Undertaking.”

If she had been standing, Felicity would have staggered back in shock. As it so happened that she was sitting, instead Felicity inhaled sharply in shock, her eyes blowing wide. The encrypted file that Tommy had asked her to look into… the file that had military-grade tech attached to it that Felicity couldn’t break though. The Undertaking. It wasn’t anything to do with Thea… it was to do with Oliver, and some awful plan that Merlyn had for Starling City.

“You know that name?” Oliver had been watching her carefully. His tone became urgent as he asked her, “Felicity, do you know what it is?”

“No, I – I don’t know what it is,” Felicity replied, shaking her head. “But – I’ve heard that name before. Tommy Merlyn, Malcolm Merlyn’s son, he… he gave me a USB stick with some encrypted files on it, wanting me to hack it because he thought it was about Thea. One of the files on it was called The Undertaking.”

Oliver shook his head darkly. “I don’t know what it is or what he’s planning exactly, but’s it’s bad. It’s very, very bad, Felicity. It’s going to be devastating, that’s what he said. He said that it would kill thousands of people. He bragged about it. Thousands of people will die, and somehow, it involves the Glades.”

Her eyes as round as plates due to her horror and shock at his information, Felicity opened her mouth to ask another question when suddenly her doorbell rang. In an instant Oliver was up on his feet and unleashing a feral, dragon-like growl, glaring at the door in a half-crouch, baring his teeth. She clapped a hand over her mouth to contain her laughter – even in human form, Oliver was still acting like a dragon. But then she realised that somebody was at the door.

“Get behind the couch,” she ordered Oliver shortly, slapping his arm urgently. “Quickly!”

He did as she said, but refused to hide, even when she glared at him. He seemed to have developed some resistance against her powerful glowers, because although he winced, he didn’t back down like he originally had done when she had shot them at him. Holding her breath, Felicity glanced through the peep hole. On seeing who it was, she exhaled in relief. It was Quentin.

She turned back to Oliver and whispered, “It’s Quentin… my future step-dad.”

“What?” Oliver blinked at her in confusion.

“Quentin Lance, my future step-dad. Remember, I told you about him. He hates you.”

“Oh, you mean the police man your mom is dating that’s been hunting me in dragon form,” Oliver nodded. “The one who shot me down with a bazooka. Wait, no, I think it was a bola. My memory’s a little fuzzy from that night.” His lips quirked. “Well, I remember meeting you. That I remember very clearly.” He frowned. “But he tore my tail fin off.”

Felicity bit her lip, grinning. “Oliver, you’re rambling.”

“Guess you rubbed off on me.” His eyes widened as he realised what he had just said. “I’m sorry. Point is, yes, I remember your future step-father.”

“Felicity, I know you’re in there!” Quentin shouted through the door, banging his fist on it now. “Don’t try and pretend you’re not home. Let me in!”

Gritting her teeth, she glanced back at Oliver apologetically. “He won’t leave until he gets to come in.”

He shrugged. “It’s your call.”

“Felicity, I can hear you talking!” Quentin continued to yell. “Is there somebody in there with you? That better not be a one night stand in there with you, sweetheart. There’s a reason I carry around a loaded gun with me.”

“Oh my god, Quentin, shut up!” she couldn’t contain her outburst, thumping back at the door. “You sound like a complete lunatic!”

“I’m not leaving until you let me in, Felicity!”

With a heavy sigh, she opened the door. Immediately, Quentin swept inside and placed his hands on her shoulders, checking her over worriedly.

“Are you alright? You said you were sick… your mom can’t get out of work but I said I’d check on you and –“ A look of confusion passed over his face. “And you don’t look sick.”

“Yeah, uh, there’s a reason for that…” Felicity started weakly.

Quentin glanced around the apartment and stiffened. Felicity cringed. He had spotted Oliver. “Who’s this, sweetheart?” he asked shortly, stiffly. “Why’ve you got a strange man in your apartment?” He looked back at her, running his eyes over her, and then he caught sight of something that made him even angrier. “Is that a bruise? That’s a bruise, Felicity.” He placed a hand on his handgun, furious as he hissed, “This guy hurt you?”

“ _No!_ No, no! He would never hurt me!” Felicity hurried to explain, grabbing his hand and pulling it away from his gun. “Oliver’s a friend, he –“ She needed to make up a cover story, and fast. “I was mugged in the Glades, okay?”

“What?” Father mode was obviously activated. “Are you alright? Are you hurt? Your bruise on your head, it looks like it’s pretty big, you’re not hurt anywhere else, are you?” His eyes darkened. “That guy that mugged you –“

“I’m fine. It was just some punk kid wanting to get his hands on a wallet. He didn’t get anything, and it certainly doesn’t warrant a police investigation. The kid pushed me into a wall, which was how I got the bruise, and Oliver intervened. He rescued me, Quentin.”

“Really?” Quentin still had his eyes narrowed at Oliver suspiciously.

“Yeah, he did,” she told him firmly. “I hit my head and he was worried that I had a concussion so he drove me home. He’s been nothing but a gentleman the entire time. We were debating over whether or not I needed to go to hospital when you got here. And I don’t need to go to hospital before you ask. I’m _fine_.”

“I’ll be the judge of that,” Quentin grumbled, at the same time Oliver piped up quietly, “You really did hit your head quite hard, Felicity…”

“Nope, both of you, just no,” Felicity raised a finger. “I’m okay. I can decide for myself whether or not I want to go to hospital. And I don’t. Honestly, I’m okay.”

“Huh.” Quentin seemed to have accepted it, which let Felicity relax slightly. But he still had protective father mode up and running as he turned to Oliver with his arms crossed, questioning sharply, “What’s your name, kid?”

Throughout her and Quentin’s exchange, Oliver had been watching them carefully like it was a tennis match. Now he was put under scrutiny, he froze, eyes wide as he struggled to find words.

“Oliver,” he finally answered.

“Knew that already, kid. What’s your full name?”

Oliver looked panicked. Felicity bit her lip – of course Oliver didn’t have a last name. She had given him his first name, and he couldn’t remember his family.

Before she even knew what she was doing, Felicity blurted out, “Queen. Oliver Queen.” It was the name that came into her head the fastest and she immediately internally berated herself – the surname Queen was a famous one, and there was no way her father would believe Oliver was related to the Queen family.

She was right. Quentin’s protective shutters came straight back up. “Queen, huh? Like Thea Queen, Moira Queen? You honestly telling me this punk is related to one of the richest families in Starling, ‘Lis?”

“Quentin!” Felicity squawked.

“If he’s a Queen, how come I’ve never heard of him then?”

“He’s not one of those Queens! Oliver is not in any way related to Thea or Moira, he just so happens to share their surname! Is that a crime? To have to same surname as somebody else? He’s just moved to town, okay?”

Quentin turned to Oliver. “Where’ve you moved from then?”

Felicity internally panicked. She knew Quentin wouldn’t accept anything else from her. Oliver was on his own in making up a cover story for himself.

But to her surprise, Oliver could fend for himself. “Abroad,” he answered swiftly, smoothly. “But I’m originally from Bludhaven. I moved here to Starling because I’m studying dragons, and this Night Fury your city has attracted hit the national news a few weeks ago, and I’m interested in studying him.”

“You with the IDCO?”

Oliver miraculously managed to keep a straight face as he answered, “You could say that.”

Felicity had to fight herself from bursting out laughing. Quentin narrowed his eyes one final time at him before turning to Felicity. “Alright, fine,” he allowed. “Your new boyfriend’s passed my first judgement.”

“What? _NO._ Oliver’s not –“

“ – I’m not her boyfriend,” Oliver finished for her.

“Yeah, sure,” Quentin threw back. He crossed his arms. “So, Felicity’s new boyfriend, what do you think of the justice system in Starling City? What is your opinion on the Starling City Jets team? Do you like chicken cordon bleu?

“Oh my god, Quentin, please just stop,” Felicity whispered, her eyes wide as she stared at Oliver in thinly veiled horror. She had no idea how Oliver was going to react to all this. Judging by his expression, he was terrified.

“Why?” Quentin raised an eyebrow, still keeping one eye on Oliver. “There are certain things I have to know about your boyfriend as your possible future step-father.” Then his eyes narrowed at her and he asked accusingly, “Or are you still going to try and deny that this guy’s your secret boyfriend that you didn’t tell your mom about, hmm?”

Felicity closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. There was no way Quentin was going to drop this. The quickest way she was going to get her cop step-father out of her apartment was if she agreed with him. “Okay, you caught me. Oliver is my boyfriend.” Ignoring Oliver’s wide-eyed, bemused face, she turned to him and gritted out, “Oliver, honey, why don’t you give Quentin and I the room? You can wait in my bedroom.”

“What?” Oliver replied, barely audible. He seemed to still be confused and afraid. “I - I don’t -”

Felicity strode around the coffee table and the couch to him and leant on his shoulder, folding her arms and resting them on top as she brushed her lips to his cheek and whispered, “You know those fish you hate? I’m going to feed those to you for a week if you do not go into that bedroom and give me a minute with my future step-father so I can handle this gigantic mess even though I have no idea what I’m doing.”

He swallowed. Felicity winced. “Okay,” he said loudly. “Take all the time you need, sweetheart.” Felicity’s eyes popped wide open and her mouth dropped slightly as he brushed his hands over her shoulders, asking in a caring tone, “You sure you’re not going to need me?”

“Just get in there, mister,” she responded with a scowl.

Then, to her shock, he pressed a kiss to her cheek and allowed her to shove him into her bedroom, with one last blue eyed look towards her. He even winked as she shut the door behind him.

When she turned back to Quentin, he looked constipated. “He’s wearing your sweats,” her future step-father said shortly.

“What?”

Quentin waved a hand at the door Oliver had just vanished into. “He’s - he’s wearing your sweatpants. And he knows where your room is. And you’re bickering like a married couple. It’s - it’s disgusting. I mean, I thought originally he might be a one night stand -”

“Quentin!”

“ - But he’s obviously more than that,” Quentin finished, grimacing. “You’re serious about him, aren’t you?”

Felicity didn’t know what to say. Eventually, she just replied, “Yes,” because it was the only logical response she could think of. She was trying not to visibly freak out too badly. “I’m - we’re thinking this might be serious.” As an afterthought, she added quickly, “Please don’t tell Mom yet. Oliver and I are… still trying to work out what we are before we tell her.” God, she was an awful liar. Why did she sound so believable? The Universe hated her, she decided.

Quentin huffed unhappily, but agreed, “Fine. I’ll keep my mouth shut about your secret boyfriend.” He paused. “Does Tanya know?” He caught sight of her expression and rolled his eyes. “Guess that’s a no. I won’t say anything to Donna and Tanya, I promise.” He caught sight of the bruise again and brushed his fingers against it. “You weren’t lying about that mugging?”

“No, I was mugged,” Felicity replied quietly. She hated lying, but she didn’t exactly want to tell her father she had been shot at. “And I wasn’t lying about Oliver saving me. We just so happened to be walking to a cafe for coffee together when it happened.”

His eyes softened. “Hey, sweetheart, you still up to coming to dinner tonight?”

“Um, I don’t know…” she said nervously, winding her hands together. “It’s been a long day…”

“Come on, Felicity, please?” Quentin asked pleadingly. “Your mom, Laurel, Sara, you and I hardly ever get the chance to get together. Merlyn’s even gonna be there.” A spark lit up his eyes as he said, obviously determined to get her to agree to come, “You could bring your boyfriend.”

“Er, no, I don’t think -” she tried to protest, alarmed at that idea. “I don't want Mom -”

“You’ll have to tell her eventually.”

“Yes, but not _tonight_.”

“Fine,” Quentin allowed. “I'll help cover for you. I say I met him on the joint SCPD-IDCO task force, you say he saved you from that mugging. He's coming to dinner so we can officially say thanks. You don't have to tell your mom he's your boyfriend. Although, you know she’s gonna ask.”

“I know,” she grumbled. “But I'm still not sure -”

“Please, Felicity? I don’t ask you for much. Please just give me this.”

Part of her wanted to punch him in the face for saying that. How dare he try to guilt trip her. He wasn’t her father. Gritting her teeth, she bit out, “Fine, I’ll come.” She knew he wouldn’t give up until she agreed anyway. She was saving herself five minutes of time that would have been taken up by more of his persuasion.

“Great,” Quentin nodded, moving towards the door. “And bring your boyfriend.” Without even giving Felicity the change to protest, he slammed the door behind him, taking his exit.

Felicity slumped in relief, putting her head in her hands and falling back into her couch with a groan. Oliver hesitantly came out from her bedroom, poking his head out first to check whether or not the coast was clear, and sat down beside her, picking up his mug of hot cocoa and draining it before setting it down again, sitting back beside her so their elbows brushed.

“Thank you so much for playing along,” she murmured, squeezing his bicep. “That cover-story, and being so nice to my future step-dad. I know you’re not comfortable around humans, new humans especially but you didn’t freak out and you acted like a perfectly normal guy and I can’t believe you just ran along with the whole boyfriend thing and you kissed my cheek and Quentin actually believed us and just… thank you.”

Oliver shrugged. “It wasn’t a big deal.”

Felicity let out a laugh and shook her head. “No, it was a big deal. You were forced into that and you didn’t go crazy dragon on him, or on me even when I made you leave and got really close up to you without asking permission first, and you kept a level head…” She blushed again. “I’m actually pretty proud of you for that.”

Oliver smiled. Felicity stared at him in awe – she hadn’t seen him smile properly before, as a dragon or as a human and… she liked it. She liked it when he smiled. It was beautiful, the way that his lips turned up and he had little cute dimples that made her breath catch.

“Thanks,” he replied softly. “That means a lot.”

“You’re welcome,” she responded gently.

Her phone buzzed. She pulled it out and glanced down at it. It was a particularly long message from Thea, posted on the Team Dragons - wait, no, they had changed the name to Team Night Fury - group chat. Wouldn’t hurt to read it.

T: _WHY THE HELL DID YOUR FUTURE STEP FATHER JUST TEXT ME ASKING IF I KNEW THAT YOU HAD A SECRET BOYFRIEND CALLED OLIVER QUEEN? HOW THE HELL DID HE EVEN KNOW MY CELL NUMBER IN THE FIRST PLACE? AND WHO IS THIS OLIVER GUY, IT’S NOT THAT OLIVER IS IT I MEAN IT’S NOT OUR OLIVER WE’RE TALKING ABOUT RIGHT. TEXT ME BACK ASAP I WANT TO KNOW WHAT’S GOING ON._

“Is that Thea?” Oliver asked, glancing over at the screen.

“Yeah,” Felicity said. “She wants to know about my apparent secret boyfriend Oliver Queen that Quentin just texted her about.”

“Thea’s Malcolm Merlyn’s daughter, isn’t she?” Felicity could see the slight fear and anger in Oliver’s stunning blue eyes. “Do you think she knows that I’m on the run from him?”

“Are you on the run from him?” Felicity raised an eyebrow.

“Why else would he send those guys to the Foundry to kill us?”

“But how did he even find –“ Another text from Thea came in, this one more insistent, demanding her to explain, followed by a text by Roy asking what the hell was going on. “Okay, we’ll discuss that later. For now, I need to explain to Thea, Roy and Dig what’s going on. You okay with that?”

Oliver looked troubled. “I don’t like humans knowing about my shape shifting abilities,” he muttered very quietly, his fingers tangling with one another nervously.

“You can trust the guys. I mean, we’re a team, Oliver,” she informed him with a reassuring smile. “Roy made that prosthetic for you, right?” Her eyes widened suddenly in realisation. “When your tailfin was ripped off –“

“Let’s not talk about that right now,” Oliver interrupted uncomfortably. “And alright, you can tell them… but just them.”

Felicity very quickly hacked into the coding of their chat and made it so that it was untraceable to any of them, before she texted the entire team.

F: _Dig, Roy, I need you both to bring some men’s large size clothes over to my apartment ASAP._

T: _WHY ARE YOU TEXTING THEM, YOU SHOULD BE REPLYING TO ME EXPLAINING WHY THERE’S AN OLIVER WITH MY SURNAME RUNNING AROUND STARLING AND APPARENTLY YOUR BEDROOM TOO._

F: _He’s not my boyfriend, Thea._

T: _THEN PLEASE EXPLAIN._

R: _Yeah, Blondie, I’m kind of confused as well. What’s with this whole Oliver Queen business and why do you need men’s clothes?_

D: _Felicity, you better not be texting me asking for men’s clothes because you have a one night stand at your apartment and you got a little too frisky with him and now you need clothes for him because his are no longer wearable. And you told your future step-dad that he was your secret boyfriend to avoid getting the whole ‘be safe with your one night stand’ lecture. I get enough of that from Thea._

T: _EXCUSE ME MR BIG ARMS, YOU DO NOT._

D: _Keep telling yourself that, Queenie._

T: _ONCE, DIG, AND YOU’VE NEVER LET ME LIVE IT DOWN. AND LIS WE’RE STILL WAITING FOR AN EXPLANATION._

Felicity took a deep breath. She cast one last glance at Oliver, their eyes connecting, before she gathered her courage and punched the keys with all the force she could muster, sending off a text that she knew she would probably regret later.

F: _My Night Fury dragon is apparently a human shape shifter on the run from Malcolm Merlyn, I had to lie to Quentin and say he was my boyfriend and he’s currently hiding in my apartment. We need to protect him. Who’s in?_

The immediate three replies of, _I’m in_ , told her everything she wanted to know.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! Please leave kudos and comment!  
> Feel free to ask any questions :)
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


	6. ~ Part 5 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 5** :  
> \- Call a team meeting  
> \- Introduce your newly human dragon to your team  
> \- Deal with suspicions and explain the situation  
> \- Begin making a plan  
> \- Deal with more suspicions and any panic that may arise  
> \- Deal out duties to your team  
> \- Prepare  
> \- Take your dragon to his first human social gathering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *whispers* guess who's back, back again... yes I'm back. Tell your friends. Finally, finally back with a new chapter. Exams have ended, and I am finally free.
> 
> And here I am, updating this fic. This fic, that just reached **5000 hits!** This fic, that all of you have shown incredible, wonderful support for, being such amazing human beings and messaging and commenting me with encouragement and kind words. I'm so grateful to have you all here *hugs for all of you*

* * *

Felicity didn’t think she’d ever felt so nervous before in her entire life. And considering she had been forced to wait for nearly three weeks for a reply to her request letter to study at MIT after she had graduated high school early, that was saying something. She was seated on her couch, humming under her breath as she cradled another cup of cocoa to her chest. The TV was switched on, playing a repeat of a documentary on rare American dragons, but Felicity wasn’t paying attention to it. No, she was more interested in watching the newly human Night Fury, who was furiously pacing back and forth across her living room.

Maybe it was the fact that Oliver seemed to be so nervous that was actually making her nervous. The dragon was walking circles around her living room, back and forth, never stopping, his eyes warily darting around the space as a low rumbling noise erupted from his chest. Rubbing her eyes, Felicity sighed and reached out, catching his wrist.

Oliver came to a halt in front of her, his thumb rubbing against his forefinger in such a way that Felicity was able to deduce it was a PTSD anxiety tick. “What?” he asked absentmindedly, his eyes fixing on the door.

Felicity followed his gaze with raised eyebrows. Was Oliver seriously so worried about meeting Thea, Roy and Diggle again? Or was it more the fact that he was in human form? Narrowing her eyes at the dragon, Felicity observed his reactions for a few seconds, keeping a firm hold of his wrist.

“Oliver,” she said slowly. “It’s going to be fine. You’ve met Dig, Thea and Roy before. None of them are going to hurt you. They’re our friends - our _team_.”

“I know.” Oliver’s gaze didn’t leave the door. Felicity gave his wrist a gentle tug, which prompted him to turn back towards her, and the sheer fear projected by his cobalt eyes made the IT girl swallow. “I know, it’s just - every single time I’ve been in human form around other humans, I’ve been experimented on, shot at or beaten. Just remaining human around others makes me - it makes me expect the worst.”

“Oh god,” Felicity whispered in horror under her breath, because _of course_ he would be afraid of humans. He had been raised by people who had experimented on him and murdered his friends, tortured by the human who had bought him as a weapon, and permanently injured for life and hunted by others. Squeezing his hand supportively as she laced her fingers through his, Felicity told him firmly, “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

The look he sent her, as he shakily exhaled, blinking down at her with suspiciously wet blue eyes, made Felicity swallow, a warm feeling pooling in her chest that _definitely_ wasn’t appropriate considering that only around ninety minutes ago, the man in front of her (the very _attractive_ man in front of her) had been in the form of a Night Fury.

The moment was ruined, however, if there even had been a moment in the first place, which there hadn’t been, Felicity insisted to herself, when a car door slammed loudly outside and Oliver startled violently. Felicity couldn’t help but jump back in shock when the man heaved a ferocious snarl, baring his teeth and his eyes glowing an electric blue for a few seconds, a stark difference to the soft ocean they had been before. Seeing her astonishment, the snarl tapered off into an apologetic rumble, but Oliver still retreated behind the couch, half-crouched in defence and gazing cautiously at the door.

Switching off the television, Felicity stood to check outside the window, pulling the curtain back half a centimetre to glance outside, down at the street. It was the team, Diggle having slammed the driver’s door of the black sedan to open the back door for Thea. Roy was already standing on the pavement, surveying the surroundings.

“It’s the team,” Felicity informed Oliver, turning back to face him, and biting back a laugh at his hilarious growly face. “You know, they’re not going to bite. You’re the dragon here, if anybody should be afraid of anyone, it should be them afraid of you.”

“Yeah, well -” Oliver tried to begin defensively, wrapping his arms around his chest and glaring at the door. But he trailed off, seemingly unable to come up with a sarcastic response. He grumbled, changing the subject, “Have you got any food? I’m hungry.”

“When was the last time you ate?” Felicity questioned.

Oliver shot her a pointed look.

“Right,” she realised. It had been a stupid question, of course, because Felicity had been the one feeding him in the first place. “Maybe after we all talk, I could ask Dig to go and get some takeout?”

“I can cook,” Oliver offered.

“Wait, _you_ can cook? When did you learn to cook?”

He shrugged. A knock on the door caused Oliver to start growling again. Rolling her eyes at him, Felicity went to answer it, smiling at Roy, Thea and Dig as she let them inside. All three of them looked wary, and as their eyes settled on the man currently hiding behind her couch, growling, their cautious expressions morphed into ones of confusion and disbelief. Felicity grimaced, standing between the two opposing parties, as the team and the human Oliver faced off; the dragon refused to break eye contact as he fiercely met all of their gazes, his shoulders tensed and lips still drawn back in a defensive snarl. Diggle dropped down the duffel he had been holding onto the floor, and that seemed to jolt everybody into action.

Closing the door and crossing the room, Felicity grabbed Oliver’s wrist, ignoring his warning chitter, yanking him out from behind so that he was standing beside her in front of the team. “Thea, Roy, Dig… This is Oliver,” Felicity introduced awkwardly, displaying the dragon with one of her hands.

With Felicity nudging her elbow into Oliver’s side, he winced and raised a hand to give an uncomfortable wave. “Hi,” he said shortly, his voice quiet.

A beat of silence, and then Diggle addressed her lowly, “Felicity, could we speak to you for a second, please?”

“Sure.” She didn't move.

Diggle’s eyes darted over to Oliver. “Privately?”

Felicity crossed her arms. “Why?”

“Felicity,” Thea said, but it was the way in which she was eyeing Oliver that made Felicity agree.

She pointed at the duffel bag, asking, “Are those clothes?” At Roy’s nod, she picked it up and handed it over to Oliver, who took it gingerly, still looking at the trio of humans opposite them with wary vigilance. “There’s some proper clothes in there that will fit you better, why don’t you go and get changed in my room, okay?”

“Okay,” he murmured in reply, his arm brushing against hers as he stepped back and retreated into the bedroom, the door snicking shut behind him.

There was a brief pause of silence, in which nobody spoke, but as soon as Felicity turned back to face Thea, Dig and Roy, she was met with their incredulous, somewhat angry faces.

“I know it’s hard to believe,” Felicity told them calmly. “But that’s really Oliver.”

“So you’re telling us that your dragon magically transformed into a human being.” Roy said it in such a way that it wasn’t a question, and it sounded completely ridiculous. Which Felicity couldn’t argue against - it did sound impossible. But she was telling the truth.

“Not magically,” she responded, which probably wasn’t the best reply, to be honest. “By science. But yes, Oliver the Night Fury is now Oliver the human being.”

Thea shook her head slowly. “Do you have any idea how crazy you sound?”

She went on to quickly explain what had occurred when she had arrived at the Foundry, cutting bits of the story out but basically telling them about the men attacking and Oliver saving her as a dragon, before transforming and escaping with her as a human. She shortly told them about their conversation, about Oliver’s creation, wincing at Thea’s hurt and betrayed expression when she was forced to tell them about Merlyn’s involvement in all of this. She was just starting on what they knew about the Undertaking when Dig raised his hand up, cutting her off.

“Have you entertained the idea,” he said, eyebrows raised, “That this man could be lying to you?”

Felicity gaped. “After everything I just told you, you can’t be serious. You said you were in!” When they all exchanged glances, red hot fury overcome her and she exclaimed angrily, “Why would he lie about any of that? What would he gain?”

“Maybe he’s leading you on,” Dig suggested. “Trying to gain your trust, so he can manipulate you.”

She threw her hands up into the air. “And why would he do that?”

“He could be one of Malcolm’s henchmen.” Felicity knew the look she sent towards Roy at that statement was one of disbelief. “No, hear me out - they tracked Oliver, the dragon, to the Foundry, planted cameras and microphones so they could learn personal information, then planted that guy during an attack they used as a diversion to distract you, so they could have an inside man.”

Felicity was about to respond furiously, absolutely enraged at her team for actually thinking that she was that easy to manipulate and fool, when Oliver’s muffled voice sounded from behind her bedroom door, “You know, I can hear everything you’re saying.” The door opened and Oliver glanced between them all. “Enhanced dragon hearing. And you’re not making any effort to talk quietly either.”

Felicity would have focused on the offended look in her dragon’s eyes if she had not been so distracted by what he was now wearing. He had changed out of the sweats into the clothes Dig and Roy had provided, now dressed in slightly faded jeans and a long sleeved charcoal grey t-shirt. Both were tight fitting, hugging his figure nicely so that Felicity couldn’t stop herself from raking her eyes up and down his form, very female parts of her appreciating the look. Shaking herself out of it, Felicity forced herself to step forwards so she was closer to Oliver than the others, feeling somewhat protective over him.

“First of all, I’m slightly offended on Felicity’s behalf that you think she’s that easily tricked,” Oliver said. “Because she’s the smartest, most intelligent human being I know, and there is absolutely no way she would fall for something like that. And secondly, if everything Felicity just told you, which I told her, isn’t enough for you to believe what we’re saying, then I don’t think anything will.” He tilted his head towards her. “Felicity’s trustworthy. You should at least believe her.”

“Yeah, it’s not her who I don’t think is trustworthy,” Diggle answered, the hostility in his voice evident.

The atmosphere of the room shifted, becoming darker and heavier, because in response, Oliver flinched and froze in his moments, his entire body tensing at. Immediately, Felicity straightened and slipped closer towards him, taking a hold of his elbow and turning him. He was scared. She could see his fear in his eyes. After what she had heard he had suffered through, Felicity wasn’t surprised.  
“Do you need some space?” she questioned, making sure she wasn’t invading his personal bubble too much, but also wanting to provide a comforting presence.

“No, I’m fine,” he replied back quietly.

Felicity turned back to the team, revelling in how flustered and uncomfortable they looked at receiving that sort of reaction from Oliver. “So what, you guys want proof? Is that it?”

“That would be ideal,” Thea replied.

Oliver lifted up his left foot, planting it on one of the chairs, without even speaking. His big, index and middle toes were missing. They looked like they had been torn off to the base, leaving messy, bloody, half-healed scars behind. Horror washed through Felicity and she instantly had to reach out for support, but ended up latching onto the nearest thing to hold herself up, which happened to be Oliver’s shoulder. As her hand fisted into the shirt, he ducked his head so his forehead brushed the crown of her head. But the both of them immediately leapt backwards from each other as soon as they made skin-to-skin contact, and Felicity blushed to the tips of her ears, pointedly not making eye contact with anybody.

“That’s awful,” Thea said quietly, her eyes wide as she gazed down at the foot. “Was that where - where your tailfin was torn off?”

“By a bola,” Oliver confirmed, finally putting his foot back down on the floor as he shifted nervously. “It hurt. A lot.” He looked down at his hands. “And then I couldn’t fly afterwards. I got lost in the Glades. But then Felicity found me.” He turned towards her, and the hesitant smile he offered her warmed Felicity’s heart. “And I met you guys, and I really don’t know how to put into words how grateful I am that you’re helping me get my flight back with the prosthetic.”

“You threw a fit and nearly destroyed it,” Roy said.

Oliver had to decency to at least look sheepish. “Sorry. I just got a little annoyed about how it didn’t offer independence of the tailfins.” He paused. “But I do appreciate it. A lot. I honestly don’t know how I’m going to repay you.” Finally looking Roy in the eye, Oliver gave him a sharp nod, saying, “Thank you.” Then a smile spread across his face and he added, “And I really don’t mind Felicity being the once having to operate it manually. I’ve never flown with a rider before, but I’ll gladly accept Felicity as mine.” For a brief, fleeting moment, he looked excited. “You said the tailfin will be ready soon - I can’t wait to get back up in the air again.”

Roy blinked at him for a moment, before twisting to face Diggle. “I believe them,” he announced.

Diggle stared back, his suspicious expression not wavering. “Fine,” he finally agreed. “We’ll see how this goes.” He shot Oliver a warning, threatening look. “But the moment you step out of line, and I think you’re a danger to any one of us, I’ll put a full clip of bullets into your chest.”

Felicity made to protest angrily, Thea even looking shocked, but Oliver just tilted his head respectfully. “Fair enough.”

“Alright, are we all okay with each other now?” Felicity questioned, her hand falling on Oliver’s shoulder gently.

“Yeah, we’re good,” Diggle grumbled, pulling a chair out from under the kitchen table so he could sort of straddle it, his forearms resting on its back. “I think what we really need to focus on is this Undertaking business.” He looked over at the dragon. “You don’t know what it is? Haven’t overheard anything Merlyn said about it?”

Oliver fiddled with his hands, mumbling, “The room he kept me in was completely soundproof, I couldn’t overhear anything even if I wanted to, even with my enhanced hearing.”

“Soundproof?” Roy echoed.

“So, the, uh, the staff couldn’t hear me screaming.”

Every time Felicity learned another little piece of information about Oliver’s life and how he was treated, she felt like tearing up. Schooling her face into an expression that didn’t reveal how upset she was by Oliver’s words, the IT girl said, “We know it involves the Glades and the lives of thousands of residents there. Merlyn has Oliver flying around offing people to make sure the police are distracted from his plan.” She crossed the room quickly to where the thumb drive she had copied all of the files on to. “Tommy gave me these files about the Undertaking, they’re all encrypted, so I’m going to have break down that coding.”

“It’s military grade encryption?” Diggle asked.

“Yeah, but I can crack it,” Felicity smiled.

“But it’s -”

“Trust me, that’s not a problem,” Felicity reassured, with a wry grin. Her smile only widened at the surprised look on Roy and Diggle’s faces, and the snicker Thea made. “I’ll deal with trying to pick apart the Undertaking files.”

“I want to help,” Thea said firmly. “At the moment I’m spending a few nights at Malcolm’s house every week. I’ll bring Tommy into it, if he already suspects him, and we’ll do some snooping.” Before anybody could even open their mouths to protest, she carried on strongly, “No, guys. I’m doing this. If my biological dad is trying to kill a load of people in the Glades, you can bet my ass I'm gonna try and stop him.”

Felicity shook her head in concern. “Thea, if Merlyn catches you -”

“Let me worry about that,” Thea cut in. “You focus on Oliver.” She met his gaze with kind eyes. “You’ll be staying here with Felicity, I’m guessing, whilst you’re in human form?”

Felicity turned to Oliver at the exact same moment he turned to look at her. Their eyes clashed, and Felicity swallowed at the sharp inhale the dragon made, starting up his PTSD finger tick. His nervousness and wariness was visible within his blue eyes. The IT girl could not deny that she had doubts. Never had she planned on having a man (who also happened to be a dragon) living in her apartment with her, as a roommate. But remembering Oliver’s fear of being thrown out onto the street, abandoned by the only human being who had shown him kindness, Felicity knew she had to agree.

“Of course,” she said, and hid her reaction when she saw Oliver’s shoulders slump in relief. “Of course he’ll be staying with me. If you don’t mind the couch, that is,” she added, addressing the dragon, her lips quirking upwards. “I haven’t got a spare bedroom, or a camp bed or anything.”

“I’ve spent my entire life sleeping on the floor, Felicity, a couch is completely fine.”

Dammit, she wished he didn’t say things like that. It seemed like every little sentence Oliver said, admitting something about his past, pulled harshly at her heartstrings. 

“Is it safe for him to stay here though?” Roy frowned.

Irritation arose within the IT girl again, and her voice was almost as a growl as she gritted out, “Oliver isn’t dangerous to me, Roy.”

“No, no, I didn’t mean that,” Roy hastily replied, looking absolutely terrified at the thought of having angered Felicity, which made her smirk. “I just meant - if Merlyn’s men were able to track Oliver to the Foundry, how do we know they won’t track him here?”

Oh god, Felicity hadn’t even thought about that. Dread filled her. What would happen if more masked, armed men turned up at her apartment? What if they shot up the entire apartment block, killing all the other residents, in search of Oliver?

As if sensing her sudden fear, Oliver placed his hand at the base of her spine, at the small of her back and gently rubbed his thumb there, looking between them all with an intense gaze. “That won’t happen. As long as I’m in human form, Merlyn can’t track me.”

“What do you mean?” Thea asked quietly.

Ducking his head, Oliver took a shuddering breath. “When he first - bought me - he wanted to ensure that he would be able to always find me and track me down if I escaped, because, trust me, within those first few weeks, I tried to… a lot. Whilst I was in my Night Fury form, he had me knocked unconscious and injected with nanotechnology. I have trillions of tiny micro-tech bots suspended throughout my body.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring,” Diggle said, alarmed.

“No, but - my human form and dragon form have separate biologies,” the dragon attempted to explain. “The nanotechnology is only present in my blood when I’m a Night Fury, it’s not there when I’m human. I know it doesn’t make any sense, but it essentially means that Merlyn can’t track me in human form.”

“Then why the hell didn’t you transform into this form,” Thea waved her hand at him, “A lot earlier?”

Oliver wouldn’t meet any of their eyes. “I needed to know whether or not I could trust you first.”

Felicity understood that, but she knew Thea would feel a little insulted. She spoke up swiftly, hoping that there wouldn’t be enough time for tension to arise. “So we’ve established that Oliver will be staying here with me. Now we’ve got to sort out tonight.”

“Tonight?”

Felicity sighed and raised a hand to her forehead, rubbing her temples. “Quentin came over earlier and invited me to a family dinner, that I kinda have to attend - and he wants me to bring Oliver.”

Realisation passed over Thea’s face. “He thinks that Oliver’s your boyfriend?”

“To be fair, he was wearing your sweats,” Roy muttered. When Felicity shot him a glare, he raised his hands up in the universal signal of surrender.

“Yes,” Felicity said, answering Thea’s question. “And I think it would actually be better to let him believe that for now, especially since Oliver will be staying with me. But there’s still the small matter of clothes.”

“Yeah, I don’t have any,” Oliver said.

“Which is why Thea and Roy will be taking you shopping,” Felicity announced, patting his shoulder. Turning to Roy, she ordered, “Get him some casual clothes, toiletries, some personal items. Oh, and a suit. He’s gonna need a suit or tux for tonight if he wants to survive the onslaught that will be the Smoak-Lance family dinner.”

Thea looked offended. “Why didn’t you look at me?”

“Because you’ll end up buying him way more stuff than he actually needs, go way overboard, and treat him like your personal project for a style makeover.” Felicity crossed her arms. “Don’t glare at me. You would. All of us know that.”

“Yeah, you’re a bit of a diva,” Roy agreed, smirking.

“Could you take Oliver for something to eat too? He hasn’t eaten in a while.”

Diggle spoke up, raising his voice as he butted in on the conversation he had let continue for a few minutes. He had a look on his face that sent waves of trepidation down Felicity’s spine. “Felicity, could I talk with you, privately, outside for a few minutes?”

Biting her lip, she glanced up at Oliver. He gave her a weak smile and nodded, his eyes flying over to consider Thea and Roy, less warily than before, but some fearful hesitance still there. However, Felicity knew that it was mostly directed towards Thea - she wasn’t blind, and she had noticed how Oliver had the most apprehension concerning the young Queen-Merlyn, only because he knew that she was Malcolm Merlyn’s father. Felicity couldn’t blame him - if she was being faced with the daughter of a man who had tortured her, she knew she would react the same way.

“I’ll be fine,” he told her quietly, his hand, that had remained on her back, rubbing one final circle before falling away. “Roy, Thea and I will write up a list of the things we need to buy.”

She smiled softly before turning to Diggle and tilting her head, gesturing that they could step outside the front door. Once it was securely closed behind them, Felicity ran a hand over her face and rubbed her eyes. The bodyguard’s position was defensive, unimpressed and suspicious all at the same time, making her think that this conversation was _not_ going to go well.

“A family dinner?” Diggle said. “Really?”

“What?” Felicity raised her head up, narrowing her eyes. “You don’t think it’s appropriate?”

“Damn right I don’t,” Dig replied. “You barely know this guy, and now you want him to meet your entire family? What if he goes ballistic and attacks you all?”

“This is Oliver we’re talking about. He trusts me, and I trust him.”

“Fine. Fine. Let’s say for a moment that I actually believe this bullshit about the man in your living room being your dragon transformed into human form - if he can barely stand to be around our team, humans he knows, in his human form, how do you think he’s going to cope stuck in a small room with a bunch of strangers that, are no doubt, are gonna poke and prod at him all evening whilst they plaster him with invasive questions?”

Felicity knew that he was right, that it sounded pretty bad, and she internally accepted the fact that Oliver was going to struggle, but only one thing really stuck with her. “So you were playing along earlier. You don’t believe me when I say that the man in there is Oliver.”

“Can you blame me?” Diggle looked incredulous. “His story is ridiculous.”

“His story is traumatic, and heart-breaking,” Felicity responded angrily, poking one finger into the man’s chest forcefully. “And I saw everything happen with my own eyes, Dig, I know what I’m saying is the truth. That man, in there, is my Oliver. And nothing you can say will convince me otherwise.”

Diggle scoffed, turning away. “Right, because wishes just magically come true like that.”

“What the hell do you mean by that?”

The look Dig fixed on her made Felicity feel extremely uncomfortable. “You know exactly what I mean.”

“Alright, say that I don’t.”

Silent for a few seconds, when Diggle finally replied, he sounded resigned, “You’ve gotta figure that one out for yourself. But, Felicity, I see the way you look at him. And you barely even know him. That’s dangerous.” He sighed. “Alright, take him to your family dinner. Let him bunk with you. But I think that we should look into him. Do some research, just for our own personal safety.”

Felicity swallowed. “Okay. What kind of research?”

“I think a DNA test would verify his story.”

Felicity shook her hand. “No, we can’t risk the results being found.”

“I know a guy, his name’s Allen. He works with CCPD as a CSI. He’ll run the sample privately, if I ask, he owes me a favour. And he’d erase the evidence of existence of those results afterwards.”

She didn’t like the idea, but if that was what it would take - “Fine. I’ll ask Oliver. Later. Tomorrow morning, once he’s settled in. You’ll need some of his blood, and saliva. But if the results of the test leak, John, then that’s on you.”

“I accept full -”

A muffled yell from inside Felicity’s apartment startled both of them, interrupting Diggle. Fear and alarm striking through her, Felicity burst back inside, immediately searching with her eyes for Oliver, some sense within her desperately needing to know that he was okay. It didn’t take long for her to spot him - he was huddled behind the kitchen table, crouched in a ball against the wall. The sheer panic in his cobalt eyes threw her for a second. Quickly looking around to check if Thea and Roy were okay, she found Thea looking immensely guilty, standing by the couch, and Roy with his head in his hands only a foot behind her.

Felicity wanted to ask what had happened, but Oliver was her first priority. She approached him cautiously, hands out to show that she had no weapons on her and that she wasn’t going to hurt him.

The dragon was curled up, shaking like a leaf and struggling to breathe, making small, pained, distressed noises. He was pale as a sheet, his eyes closed and fingers twitching. Felicity couldn’t imagine what Oliver was remembering to make him react so badly. With every one of her steps towards him, Oliver was flinching, as if he could feel the vibrations through the floor, which he probably could.

“Oliver?” she whispered. “It’s Felicity. I’m not sure where you’re at in your head right now, but I promise you, you are safe. You’re safe. You’re in my apartment, you’re with me, Thea, Diggle and Roy, and nothing is going to hurt you.”

The dragon’s eyes opened. There was a scared, feral glint there that Felicity really didn’t like. He made a wild, agonised noise, his gaze darting about terrifiedly, before he muttered under his breath, his voice a mere rasp, “This isn’t real - this - this is another t-trick. Just a mind trick that they’re - that Merlyn’s playing on you. It’s not real, it’s not r-real.”

Eyes wide, she turned to Thea and hissed, “What happened?”

“I didn’t mean to,” she whimpered.

“Thea, _what happened?_ ”

Roy piped up, his voice low and regretful, “Thea started asking questions about when Merlyn had him captured - you know, where he was staying, what it was like there and - he just reacted.”

“Panic attack,” Diggle said solemnly. “He’s probably flashing back to when Merlyn had him.”

Oh god, this was so much worse than she had originally thought. Her throat thick, Felicity inched forwards again. “Oliver, this isn’t a trick. This isn’t a hallucination or anything; this isn’t Merlyn playing with your mind. Merlyn doesn’t even know whom Diggle, Roy and I are, does he? He’s never been to my apartment before. So how could this be a trick?”

“I - I don’t know.”

“Exactly. It’s not a trick. This is real, Oliver. It’s real, and you are safe. You are not going to be hurt, you are surrounded by your friends and team, and you are completely safe, I swear on my life. Come back to us, Oliver. Come back to me.”

And finally, Oliver blinked, his trembling subsiding as his eyes cleared and he was able to look at her fully, taking her in with a hesitant rumble. The wildness and fear faded, only to be replaced with a mental exhaustion and hesitance.

His voice was guarded and quiet when he questioned, “This is real?”

“This is totally real,” Felicity reassured.

The tense position vanished and Oliver fell back, slumping against the wall. Felicity darted forwards to catch under his shoulder and eased him backwards, running her hands over his chest, down his sides and through his hair in an attempt to ground him, making soothing noises as he moaned into her shoulder.

“Hey, it’s okay, it’s okay,” Felicity whispered, emotion welling up inside of her so quickly that she teared up, glancing at the ceiling as she sniffed. “You’re safe, you’re here and you’re safe.”

“I thought I was -” he choked out. “I thought - Merlyn -”

“He will never hurt you again,” Felicity muttered fiercely. “Never again, Oliver.” Without breaking body contact with him, she reached her hand out towards Thea, beckoning her forwards. “Come here.”

“Why?”

“Oliver currently associates you with Merlyn, and we need to show and prove to him that you’re not a threat like your father is. Come here.”

Thea edged towards them, looking more and more upset and guilty as Oliver began shaking as she came nearer and nearer. Felicity grabbed her wrist and tugged the young girl down, before yanking her in to a hug, pulling Oliver in as well. At first, Oliver resisted, wriggling with a scared noise as he tried to escape, but then he relaxed into it, mostly touching Felicity, with only one of his arms brushing Thea’s.

“Talk to him,” Felicity told Thea. “Tell him it’s going to be okay.”

“It’s alright, Oliver,” Thea obeyed obediently, tears in her eyes as she embraced them both. “I’m not going to hurt you, and my dad isn’t either. I won’t let him hurt you anymore. You didn’t deserve anything he did to you, and he should burn in a hole for what he did. I will never let him near you ever again.”

Very hesitantly, Oliver began transferring some of his weight over to Thea, until his head was resting on her shoulder. Felicity continues to cup the back of his neck, knowing it comforted him slightly, but she was relieved and overjoyed that Oliver had broken past his reservations about Thea, enough so that he now trusted her enough to maintain body contact.

It took another ten minutes for Felicity to calm Oliver down completely, but once his pulse rate was down and his panic attack seemed to be over, the dragon was extremely embarrassed. Felicity pressed another cup of cocoa and a couple of sugary biscuits into his hands, and he drank and ate, but didn’t speak. Diggle stood back against the wall, arms crossed, watching the dragon with something akin to sympathy. Roy and Thea each took a seat at the kitchen table, whilst Felicity sat next to Oliver and pressed her own side into his own, providing some physical comfort.

“Are you okay now?” Felicity asked softly, after he finished the cocoa. He nodded silently. “Please don’t go silent on me, Oliver.” She placed one of her hands on top of his own, transferring some warmth, and he stared down at it. “Do you have panic attacks often?” she questioned, keeping her voice low. 

“Yes,” he whispered back.

“And the flashbacks that accompany them - are they always about… him?”

“Not always.” Oliver hunched in on himself. “Sometimes they’re about - the experiments and that place where -” He cut himself off. “It won’t happen again, I promise. I swear, I won’t be a liability, I won’t be weak, I’ll -”

“Oliver,” she interrupted. “You are not a liability. You are not weak. You are the strongest being I know.” She rubbed his arm. “Are you still up for the shopping trip and the dinner? Because you don’t have to come. Please don’t feel like I’m forcing you into this.”

“No, I want to go,” he muttered.

“Do you want just Roy to help you shop? I’m sure Thea would understand.”

Oliver hesitated. “Actually could she - could she please come?”

“If you would like her to.”

“Yeah, I -” he breathed out. “I think I would.”

Progress. This was massive progress. Felicity couldn’t put into words how proud of him she felt. “Okay. That’s great.”

They planned for Diggle to drop Thea, Roy and Oliver off at a local shopping mall, before he would swing back around to the Foundry to check whether or not Merlyn’s men were still combing the place, being extremely careful, of course. Felicity took it upon herself to use the time to create a credible identity and past for Oliver, inserting him seamlessly into the legal system, making it seem like he had always existed. Once she had hacked into all the databases she needed to, Felicity had created Oliver an entire life, fabricating a backstory concerning his family, and a proper career, with accompanying references. If anybody searched him up, they would never suspect that he used to be a ghost.

Coming up to five o’clock, Felicity received a text from Quentin asking her to come (with Oliver) at around seven-ish, if that was no inconvenience. She replied back, saying they would be there, before texting Thea, Roy and Dig that Oliver needed to come back so that he could unpack everything and begin getting ready. Leaving them that responsibility, Felicity swept into her bedroom and started preparing for the dinner herself.

Once she was dressed in one of her favourite ‘confidence’ dresses, a nice red piece that exposed just enough of her lower back to make her feel elegant, but not enough to be inappropriate, and her hair was done, simply curled, she exited her bedroom. The sight that met her took her breath away.

Oliver was wearing a very handsome, form-fitting black tux, with an accompanying black tie and - suspenders. He was wearing goddamn _suspenders_. The tie was loosely done up, obviously going to be tightened later, and the jacket was hanging from his hand. But all in all, he looked, in all honestly, absolutely magnificent. His stubble was neatly trimmed, his hair tamed but still managing to somehow look fluffy and like she had raked her hands through it. He looked like sin on a stick; Felicity had to physically stop herself from drooling. She glanced around him to spot Thea, who was standing next to Roy. Both of them were smirking. Diggle had one eyebrow raised, but he too was smiling next to the door.

Oliver’s blue eyes were shining fixed on Felicity’s figure. “You look -” Oliver’s voice sounded rough, and he cleared it before finishing, “You look beautiful.”

She blushed. “Thank you. You look - very handsome.”

“I do?” He looked down at himself. “I’ve never worn a suit before.”

“Well, you should wear them more often,” Felicity responded lamely. Goddammit, she would never be able to focus on a family conversation if she had him sitting beside her all night. How was she supposed to pay attention to anybody else if he was in the room? “It’s just a family dinner, you’re aware… a tux is a _little_ too much.”

Oliver blinked, looking worried. “But you said a suit. This is a suit.”

“Yes,” she agreed. “But it’s a tux. Tuxes are usually worn to formal events.”

“I could change,” Oliver offered.

“No,” Felicity blurted out. She knew it was kind of selfish… but she really didn’t want him to change. “No, don’t, it’s okay. You look... very nice.”

“Just nice?” He looked disappointed. “Thea said that I would look -” He frowned, glancing back at her. “What did you say I would look?”

Thea flashed a smile that was all teeth. “Ravishing.”

Oh _god_. Felicity changed the subject swiftly. “How did the shopping trip go? Did you get enough stuff?”

“Oh! Yes.” Oliver nodded. “All the bags are in the car.” He leaned forwards, whispering, “There are a _lot_ of bags.”

Felicity sighed exasperatedly, glaring at Thea. “I knew you’d go overboard.”

“You’ll be thanking me later,” Thea threw back, winking.

Diggle checked his watch. “I’ll drive you both over there, if you’d like. I already have to drop off Roy and Thea. And you can give me a call to pick you up again.”

Felicity smiled. “Thanks, but we can get a cab back, I don’t want you to drive all the way out again when it’s late just to pick us up.”

When it was nearing half six, Diggle ushered them all into the black sedan, Roy sitting up front whilst Thea, Felicity and Oliver sat in the back, Felicity squished between Thea and Oliver in the middle. The IT girl used the journey time to teach Oliver about the new identity she had made for him, educating him on his made up family, career and life story. She could tell Oliver was nervous, because he kept on fidgeting with his hands and glancing about, as if searching for danger. They dropped Roy off at his home, before Dig swung the car around to Quentin and Donna’s apartment, arriving just on the seven o’clock mark.

“Go get ‘em, tiger,” Thea encouraged, nudging Felicity and shooting Oliver a playful smirk. “You two are gonna do great.”

Felicity steeled herself, inhaling deeply before opening the door, stepping out into the cool night’s air. Time to brave the sharks. She honestly had no idea how her mother was going too react to Oliver, but she knew that this evening, whatever the outcome, was going to stressful. Extremely stressful. Even thinking about it was making her feel worked up - and that was even without considering the fact that she was bringing her fake-boyfriend dragon-human along with her, who undoubtedly had PTSD and anxiety.

She just gazed around the street for a second, trying to gather up the remaining shreds of confidence she still had, but then she realised Oliver hadn’t moved from the car. She ducked her head back down, taking in his panicked expression and pale face. He looked like he was about to be sick.

“Hey, you okay?” Felicity asked worriedly. “You don’t look so good.”

Oliver didn’t answer, so Thea piped up for him, “I think it just dawned on him what he agreed to.”

She should have prepped him. She was an idiot, he was coming into this dinner completely blind, she should have realised how scary that would be and she should have prepped him about her family. “I could say you got sick and didn’t come.”

“I can’t just leave you,” Oliver said, keeping his breathing controlled and eyes closed as he fought back the tremors that were already shaking his hands. “No, I’m coming in. I just - I can’t believe I agreed to sitting in a room of human strangers, eating their food and invading their space, when I can’t even manage staying in your apartment alone with Thea and Roy for a few minutes.”

“I’m so sorry, I should have prepared you for this,” she muttered apologetically. “And you really don’t have to come.”

Before she could say anything else, however, Oliver bent his lithe form and exited the car, straightening up and stretching his arms like an agile, lethal jungle cat. He swung his tux blazer around his shoulders, slipping it on fluidly, before tightening his tie in such a way that Felicity realised that Thea must have taught him.

“You have stuck by me and kept me safe from the very beginning, since we met,” he told her firmly. “And I am not going to abandon you now.”

Diggle rolled his window down. “I feel like I should probably inform you that a very blonde excited woman who I assume is Felicity’s mother is staring at us from a window.”

Felicity glanced up, and surely enough, her mother was indeed framed in one of the windows of her apartment, visibly flailing. As soon as Donna caught sight of Felicity glaring at her, she squealed and the curtains were shut. Felicity face-palmed. Well, there was no getting out of this dinner now. And now her mother had seen Oliver, he would have to come.

“Thanks for the ride, guys,” Felicity said. “I’ll see you tomorrow, yeah?”

“Yeah, Roy’s gonna come over with some plans for the prosthetic and saddle, wants Oliver’s input.” Thea waved goodbye. “Have fun?”

As the sedan drove off, Felicity mumbled, “Oh, if only that were possible.” She straightened, brushing a strand of hair away from her face as she turned to Oliver, trying to offer him a reassuring, optimistic smile. “You ready?”

“Not really,” Oliver muttered.

His bowtie was wonky, so she reached out and quickly fixed it, but her hands lingered on his lapels slightly. “Neither am I, so we’re good. You feel unsafe or uncomfortable, or you want to leave, and we’ll go straight away, alright?”

“Yeah. Your mom’s staring again.”

The curtain’s were forcefully drawn closed by the time Felicity’s gaze darted up there suspiciously. She rolled her eyes. “If she starts touching up your muscles, I’m very sorry. She used to work as a waitress in a Vegas casino, so she gets a little… handsy.”

Oliver looked alarmed. “What?”

“You know what? Never mind. We’re both gonna end up freaked out and panicking anyway, we might as well head up there now and get inside. The sooner we get there, the sooner we can leave, am I right?” She tried to laugh at her own lame joke, but it came out rather crazily and desperate, only making Oliver look more confused, so she just grabbed his elbow and began tugging him towards the building.

The ride up to the apartment was tense, the clanking of the elevator being the only sound, as well as their breathing. It didn’t surpass Felicity that Oliver was sticking close to her side, almost brushing up to her arm, obviously nervous and wanting to stay near her. Subconsciously, the IT girl reached out and snagged Oliver’s jacket sleeve, shifting closer. He glanced down at her gratefully and shuffled so their arms were touching.

“It’s gonna be fine,” she said to herself, but also wanting to soothe the dragon. “Everything is gonna go just fine.”

“At least there won’t be masked men with guns?” Oliver offered.

“I don’t know about masked, but there’s definitely gonna be a guy with a gun.” Good old Quentin, even off duty, he always kept his handgun on him. And Felicity knew he would definitely have it, because he knew she was bringing a boy around. It sounded so weird to think that - she, Felicity Smoak, was bringing a boy to her parent’s house.

Oliver’s voice sounded weak when he questioned, “And will that guy be using that gun?”

“It depends whether or not your hands stray below my waist,” Felicity said, before hurriedly adding, flushing red, “Not -! Not as if _that_ would happen. Nope, that would not happen. Because you are a gentleman, a perfectly civilised gentleman...who also happens to be a dragon. Although, we probably shouldn’t broadcast that.”

“Perhaps not,” Oliver agreed flatly. “Especially to the cop who shot me down with a bola launcher and is trying to capture me.” He paused. “Who also happens to be your future cop step-dad.”

Felicity finally cracked, beginning to laugh. Oliver didn’t laugh, but she could tell he wanted to, a wide smile splitting his face as his chest heaved in silent chuckles. But as soon as the elevator door pinged open, it was like a bucket of cold water being doused over both of them. Felicity stood, frozen, not stepping out. Oliver didn’t move either. The doors of the elevator shut, so Felicity pressed the button to open them again. Taking a firm hold of Oliver’s arm, she marched them over to the door of the apartment belonging to Quentin and Donna.

“Right, this is it,” Felicity announced, sounding more like she was going to enter a war zone than her family’s apartment.

“Yep,” Oliver nodded, just behind her. He hesitated. “Are we - are we gonna knock?”

“We probably should.”

Neither of them knocked.

Felicity looked at Oliver. “You’re - you’re not gonna knock? I thought that’s why you asked -”

“It’s your mom and future step-dad’s apartment,” Oliver responded. “And your family dinner. I’m just coming along for the ride. And because for some reason I was mistaken as your boyfriend.”

“Right.” She knocked, and immediately tensed. “Oh god, I’m insane. This is not gonna go well. Why did I ever convince myself it would? This is gonna be completely awful.”

“Wait, what?” Oliver shot her a wild look. “You said it would be okay!”

“I was lying to make myself feel better!” she yelped. Oliver paled, looking away and taking an unsteady step back. “No no no! I didn’t - I’m sure it won’t be that bad, Oliver! It’s gonna be fine!”

“You just said it’s gonna be awful!” he whispered back fiercely.

The door opened. Both of their heads whipped around, and Felicity knew that her deer in the headlights expression could probably rival that of an actual deer’s. Oliver made a soft, quiet whimpering sound, that the IT girl hoped Quentin and Donna didn’t overhear.

“F’lissy!” her mother screeched. “You made it, such a wonderful surprise!” A ‘surprise’ when she had been spying on them out of the window only five minutes ago. “And who is this spectacular hotty?” She fanned herself theatrically, casting a saucy look towards Oliver, which made Felicity put her head in her hands.

“Mom,” Felicity hissed.

Quentin gently pulled her mother back inside the apartment, pushing in front of her, looking vaguely sympathetic and apologetic as he glanced towards Oliver. The dragon was probably on the verge of a panic attack behind her. “Hey, sweetheart… Mr Queen. You both wanna come in? Sara’s here, we’re just waiting for Tommy and Laurel to arrive.”

“Oh, great,” Felicity said sarcastically. She leaned forwards. “Please tell me there is wine.”

“There’s three full bottles.”

“Thank god.” Felicity tugged Oliver forwards. “Let’s get inside and get introductions sorted with Mom before Laurel and Tommy get here.”

“Good idea. I’ll crack open the first bottle of red.” Quentin nodded and vanished, taking Donna with him.

Felicty looked back at her dragon, her heart fluttering. “Ready?”

Oliver swallowed. “Yeah. Ready.”

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading :) And for being an amazing, incredible human being :)


	7. ~ Part 6 ~

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> **STEP 6:**  
>  \- Introduce your dragon to humans at the social gathering  
> \- Fight at the social gathering  
> \- Take your traumatised dragon home  
> \- Look after your traumatised dragon (See Chapter on Comfort: Chamomile Tea and Snuggling)  
> \- Have an emotional, open conversation  
> \- Get some rest (See Chapter on Personal Space: Is There Ever Any?)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... apparently it's been 5 months. *nervous laughter* Who knew?
> 
> Thank you all so much for all your patience and unwavering support. I really appreciate it. I've had a rough few months but it was you guys who got me through. Now it's the holidays, I thought I would pay back by offering this chapter.
> 
> Massive thanks to Calli, Marian, Muriel, Alejandra and Rebecca who have been keeping me sane on Twitter for the past few weeks.
> 
> I hope you all enjoy.

* * *

Donna Smoak looked absolutely and utterly delighted, and nothing terrified Felicity more. The IT girl smoothed her hands down her dress gently, nerves making her stomach roll as she hoped to God that her mother didn’t cause a scene with Oliver – Oliver, who was now looking like he’d rather be anywhere else than face Felicity’s mother and future step-dad, who had just closed the apartment door behind them.

“So, ‘Lissy,” Donna said, getting straight down to business as she twirled one finger slowly through her hair. Her eyes raked down Oliver appreciatively, and Felicity slipped in front of him rather protectively, not liking the way her mother was looking at him. “Aren’t you going to introduce me to the _incredibly_ handsome fellow on your arm tonight?”

Felicity shot Quentin a look. He grimaced back. _Humour her_ , he mouthed back.

“Mom, this is Oliver Queen,” she introduced the dragon slowly, stepping out of the way slightly so he was in sight. Thank god, he wasn’t shaking, but his blue eyes were blinking rapidly. “He’s my friend.”

Donna made a squealing sound that wasn’t entirely human, causing Felicity to wince, and Oliver flinched behind her – right, if the sound hurt Felicity’s ears, she couldn’t imagine how much it hurt Oliver’s, since he had super-dragon hearing.

“Well, _Mr Queen_ , it is _such_ a pleasure to meet you,” Donna greeted him, flashing a smile that was all teeth as she offered her hand for him to shake. “It’s lovely to finally meet the man who had been keeping my daughter all to himself for the last two weeks.”

Felicity made a choking sound. “ _Mom._ Friends. _FRIENDS_. We’re not -”

“I’m just saying, sweetheart, I haven’t seen you in quite a while,” Donna replied, her voice innocent, before she smirked. “Although I can’t really blame you, if I had snagged a hottie like him, I wouldn’t let him leave the bedroom either.” She shot Quentin a saucy wink, ignoring Felicity’s indignant squawk. “I’ll go check on the potatoes, hun.”

Felicity turned to Quentin. “Where’s your gun?” she begged.

“You can’t shoot yourself, Felicity,” Quentin responded, amused.

“No, I was more thinking of shooting Oliver and then myself,” she replied. “God, I can’t believe that I thought subjecting him to my mother would be an _okay_ idea.”

“I am right here you know,” Oliver cut in.

“I know, and I am _so sorry for that_ ,” she whispered to him.

The dragon shrugged, looking downcast at his feet. The sight of him in the tux still dazed Felicity slightly, but she forced herself to focus on his body language rather than his physique and clothing, observing his reactions. He was afraid and nervous, she could tell that much. His nervous tick, the rubbing of his thumb against his forefinger, was back, and he was shifting his weight from side to side.

“Are you okay?” she asked him quietly. Quentin shot her a questioning look, and Felicity told him shortly, “He has an anxiety about meeting new people.”

“Yeah,” Oliver rumbled, finally looking back up at her. His cobalt eyes were cleared and focused, so at least he wasn’t flashing back or shutting down. “I just didn’t expect your mother to be so…”

He struggled to finish, so Felicity just nodded understandingly, “Don’t worry, I get it.”

Quentin pointed inside the kitchen, “I’ll go talk to her, ask her to dial it down a little. Come in when you’re ready, son.” He clapped Oliver on the shoulder, which made Felicity freeze in anticipation of the dragon snapping, but Quentin was able to vanish from the living room out of sight without being attacked.

She didn’t think she had ever seen Oliver look so tense. “I was totally serious about the leaving if you feel uncomfortable thing.”

“I’m just wishing that you’d prepped me now,” he chuckled weakly. “The, um, the rest of your family aren’t like… that, are they?”

“Oh god no,” she replied hastily, “My mother is a rare breed, the world couldn’t cope with another one of her.” She frowned. “Although it’s gonna be interesting to see how Tommy, Sara and Laurel react to you.”

Oliver huffed. “I’m starting to regret agreeing to this,” he said softly.

“I’ll be by your side the entire time,” she tried to reassure him. Slipping her hand into his and squeezing it comfortingly, she continued gently, “Come on, let’s head into the kitchen and settle before my mother comes back. We should try and get you more familiar with the environment, so that when my family grill you with questions, you feel more comfortable.”

Oliver nodded in agreement, and allowed Felicity to lead him into the kitchen, her hand tugging him into motion. Donna was helping Quentin with the cooking of the chicken, but she immediately started giggling and shooting heart eyes towards Oliver as they entered the room. Felicity grimaced, guilt sweeping through her as the dragon shrank back into himself even further. Relief came to the IT girl, however, when she saw a blonde girl settled at the table already, texting on her phone.

“So they managed to drag you along too?” Felicity questioned.

Her future stepsister startled, and her feet clunked down onto the floor from where they had obviously been up on the opposite chair. “F’liss! Hey!” Sara greeted her, grinning widely. “How’s the nerd herd at QC? Well, keeping you busy, obviously, if you can’t spare the time to call once a week.” Catching sight of Oliver, Sara narrowed her eyes suspiciously and tilted her head sideways at him. “Or maybe it’s this hottie that’s keeping you busy?” The blonde waggled her eyebrows at the other.

“This is Oliver,” Felicity introduced, squeezing Oliver’s hand as she gently pulled him forwards. “And he’s my friend.” She made sure she emphasised the last word. She turned back and smiled at the dragon. “Say hi, Oliver.”

Leaning around her and waving one hand awkwardly, he offered, “Hi.”

Sara stared at him scrutinisingly for a second before nodding in approval, turning back to Felicity. “He’s cute. I like him.” She kicked the chair opposite her out, motioning down to it. “Sit, cute friend of Felicity’s.”

Oliver quickly glanced sideways at Felicity, and she nodded encouragingly. She knew that Sara would sense Oliver’s nerves and be kind to him, not push him or ask mean questions, so it would be best to get the two of them acquainted before Laurel and Tommy arrived, so that if it came down to it, the dragon at least had people to come to his verbal defence. His body tense with hesitance, Oliver lowered himself down into the chair, resting his forearms on the table. Felicity slipped into her own seat beside him, placing one of her hands on his thigh to give him some physical comfort.

“Question,” Sara said. “A cute college guy you’ve gone on a date with, that went really well, tells you that before he met you, he arranged a date with another girl, and he doesn’t want to let her down or be rude, so has to go on this date with her. What does this mean?”

Oliver blinked at her, face schooled into an impassive expression. Felicity, though, could tell that he was utterly confused by this, and her lips quirked in a smile as her eyes darted over to Sara to wink at her. “I don’t know,” Oliver replied. “What _does_ that mean?”

“You’re the guy, you’re meant to know,” Sara sighed resignedly, throwing her arms into the air. “Thanks for the help.”

“You’re… welcome?” Oliver slowly turned to Felicity, shooting her a desperate, questioning look.

Felicity chuckled, telling Sara, “Oliver’s not a typical guy, Sar, I wouldn’t take any of his dating advice if I were you.”

Quentin appeared over Oliver’s shoulder, two glasses of water in hand, as he placed one at the head of the table where he was going to be sitting, evidently, and passed the other one to Sara. “What, handsome kid like him? Would have thought he’d have a lot of dating advice.”

“Advice comes with experience,” Felicity said.

“And I have none,” Oliver finished.

“No dating experience?” Donna gasped, twirling around with her oven mittens still on as she put her hands over her heart. “Strapping, pretty boy like you? You must be pulling our legs. You must have dated before, Oliver. I would’ve thought they’d be a line of girls ready to snap you up.”

Oliver shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed on the table. “Nope,” he mumbled. “None.”

Felicity was rapidly coming to realise that Oliver was becoming uncomfortable in the environment and the questioning, so she quickly changed the subject, asking, “When are Laurel and Tommy arriving?”

“They should have been here ten minutes ago,” Quentin said, rolling his eyes. “But that Merlyn boy has a habit of being tardy, so we probably shouldn’t expect them for another five.”

“Good, where’s the wine?” She wanted to get partially drunk so that by the time Laurel and Tommy arrived, any scathing and mean comments the oldest Lance daughter would aim at her wouldn’t do any harm. Of course, she wouldn’t be able to get drunk enough to not feel anything, because she did still have to look after Oliver, but Felicity wanted to at least be slightly tipsy.

Donna shot her a disapproving look. “It’s not going to be that bad, Felicity. Besides, you have Oliver and Sara for moral support!”

“Oh no, if there’s an argument, I’m staying out of it,” Sara quickly replied.

“Same,” Oliver added swiftly.

Felicity glanced over at him, frowning. “Traitor,” she muttered.

The doorbell rang immediately after Oliver shot her a sympathetic smile and shrugged. He instantly tensed at the sound, a frantic, scared gleam in his blue eyes as he looked around anxiously. Felicity rubbed her hand on his knee supportively underneath the table, shushing him gently whilst Sara looked on with a raised eyebrow and a smirk, and Quentin went to answer the door.

Laurel and Tommy came and sat down at the table, and introductions were made as Donna and Quentin went back into the kitchen to bring out the food they’d prepared, a roast chicken with a number of different vegetables, and some stuffing that Laurel had made and brought with her. Felicity barely flinched at the disdainful glance Laurel sent her way as she greeted her little sister, and then went on to greet Oliver curiously. Felicity didn’t like the way that her future stepsister was staring at the dragon as they shook hands, and she especially didn’t like the glint in Laurel’s eyes, considering that she was engaged. Tommy was his usual cheery self, enthusiastically hugging everybody, before dialling down his excitement to say hello to Oliver. Quentin must have mentioned something briefly to them about the dragon’s anxiety with meeting new people, which Felicity appreciated.

She and Sara had a small silent conversation between them about Laurel’s rude behaviour towards the IT girl, but Felicity was brought back to focus on the group as their parents arrived in the room with all the food, and she caught Tommy nudging Oliver softly in the side and muttering, “Us men have got to stick together when we’re outnumbered by the female species.”

Oliver visibly perked up as the roast chicken was placed on the table, which made Felicity bite her lip to hide her grin. The dragon loved chicken. It had always been his favourite meat to consume when Felicity fed him back in the Foundry. He used to devour entire chicken crowns whole.

“Is that chicken?” Oliver questioned, although he knew perfectly well that it was.

Donna beamed. “Yes! All the trimmings, plus Laurel’s stuffing, carrots, boiled potatoes and peas. Do you like chicken, Oliver?”

“Yes, I like chicken,” Oliver nodded approvingly.

Her mom laughed. “Good!”

“It looks wonderful, Donna,” Tommy complimented, rubbing his hands together.

“Oh, well,” her mother blushed, waving her hand dismissively. Felicity rolled her eyes. “As you know, I can’t make grilled cheese without burning it. It was mostly Quentin doing the cooking.”

“That’s reassuring,” Laurel said snidely. “At least we know we’re not going to get food poisoning.”

Turning to Laurel to fix a vicious glare on her, Felicity was surprised to see that Tommy glowered at his fiancée and that even Oliver looked angry at her remark. She had to firmly take a hold of the dragon’s wrist to stop him from rising and saying something sharp in retort. The storm within his blue eyes calmed ever so slightly when he wheeled around and their gazes locked, but he still looked riled up. Felicity silently prayed that for the rest of the evening, Laurel didn’t try and say anything else too rude. Otherwise she probably would end up with her beautiful, perfect hair singed with dragon fire.

The food was dished out, and small talk was made between the family whilst Felicity kept on trying to stop Oliver from stealing more chicken every five minutes. Whilst Tommy was occupied with talking about sports or something or another (Felicity wasn’t really listening) and Sara had drawn Donna into a conversation that she was forcing Laurel to participate in, the dragon kept on creeping his hand out for the massive fork to serve himself more meat. Felicity rolled her eyes as she had to slap Oliver’s hand down for the fifth time.

“No,” she said firmly.

“Please can I have more chicken?” he whispered.

“You’ve had enough chicken, mister, eat your vegetables.”

He shot her wounded, pleading stare, which she countered by raising her eyebrow. Huffing, Oliver angrily speared a carrot and popped it into his mouth, chewing aggressively, which almost made Felicity burst out laughing.

Talk soon turned to work, which lead to Donna questioning Oliver, her voice very suggestive and elbow leaning on the table as she played with her blonde hair. “So, Oliver, where do you work?”

Thank god this was something Felicity knew Oliver was prepared for.

“Oh, I kind of work free lance,” the dragon replied, giving a small smile. “In dragon identification, conservation and training.”

Donna looked absolutely thrilled that Felicity’s new ‘friend’ had the same interests as her. Quentin, less so. Her mother was about to pipe up and say something again when Laurel raised her voice.

“Well, if you’re as stupidly obsessed with dragons as Felicity is, then you’ve definitely met the right girl for you.”

The table went silent.

Sara finally spoke up, her voice dangerously low and angry as she hissed, “Laurel, that was uncalled for.”

Laurel was smirking. Felicity wanted to smash her pretty smirking face into a wall. “What? It’s true,” she said, attempting to shrug innocently.

Oliver, however, was taking none of it. His blue eyes were practically glowing as he raised himself up to full height, lifting his chin assertively. “Maybe if you knew how massively misunderstood dragons are, and how intelligent they are and how much they contribute to the world and society, then you’d be smart enough to get your head around why Felicity and I are interested in dragons so much.”

There was another beat of silence, this one more tense than the other, but Sara was shooting Oliver an impressed look, and Donna was gazing at Oliver as if she was a blind woman seeing the sun for the first time. Quentin was sitting back with his eyebrows raised in shock, however he also appeared impressed. Felicity was also stunned, not expecting that level of sass to erupt from the dragon, and especially not expecting him to come to her defence against Laurel - and completely destroy her using words, and not his claws and fangs.

Laurel stuttered, not knowing how to respond, looking offended, which to Felicity was _beautiful_. “I - I don’t - I wasn’t really -”

“Maybe you should think before you make ignorant remarks then.” Oliver pointedly turned away from her and back to Donna, continuing with the conversation that Laurel had cut into. “I came to Starling initially to investigate the Night Fury that’s flying around here, and since I occasionally help the IDCO out with rare dragons they encounter, I thought it would be a good idea to settle down for a while.”

“Where are you staying?” Sara asked, her eyes piercing.

“He’s staying with me, actually,” Felicity announced.

She hadn’t known that her mother could look more delighted. “OH!”

“Oliver,” Quentin said, pushing into the conversation whilst Felicity’s mother flailed epically over the concept of her daughter having a male roommate. “I asked the IDCO about you today, and they said they’d never heard of you.”

Felicity immediately panicked internally. Oh god, it might be on the records she’d hacked that Oliver had worked with the IDCO before, but she hadn’t thought about the actual IDCO agents. If they didn’t remember Oliver, and couldn’t credit for him working with them before, then of course that would cause some suspicion to arise.

Oliver, fortunately, stayed completely calm. “Oh, that’s surprising. Do you mind if I questioned whom exactly you spoke to? Some of the lower down agents within conversation and identification probably would never have met me. I usually work with the endangered dragons department.”

Quentin looked a little flustered. “Oh, er. No, I spoke to one of the guys being the runner between the field investigation group and the police. They wouldn’t have heard of you then.”

They went back to eating, their small talk dying down. Felicity was delighted to see that Laurel was still too embarrassed by Oliver slaying her in conversation to talk, staying quiet and only speaking to her fiancé and saying a few words. Since the dragon had cleared his plate before everybody else, he went to grab the wine bottle and very politely refilled everybody’s glasses, as if he was a trained professional waiter. Felicity had to concentrate to ensure she didn’t subconsciously salivate over the sight of him looking so handsome in his tux, with that beautiful small smile on his face as he slightly bowed at the waist to refill another wine glass, holding the bottle expertly with a single hand. As soon as he refilled her glass, Felicity gulped it down. She needed more wine. Now not only to cope with Laurel, but to deal with the incredibly good-looking man in front of her. The dragon shot her a confused puppy dog eyes look in response, which made her want to drink even more wine.

As Quentin began clearing all the empty plates from the table, Sara helping out by taking more dirty crockery to the kitchen, Donna brought in a bottle of champagne. Felicity instantly froze, staring at the bottle held within her mother’s hand.

Oh no. Champagne.

Champagne meant there was going to be an important announcement. The chance of celebration. Shit. Felicity had an inkling of what this announcement was going to be, and she did not like that inkling, not at all. Quentin arrived back carrying a few champagne glasses, and Felicity began to feel physically sick. Oliver made a concerned sound as she almost gagged and bowed her head, brushing his hand against her waist cautiously, but Felicity just shook her head at him, grimacing.

Once everybody was seated again, Donna stood whilst Quentin poured the champagne into the glasses. “Everybody, Quentin and I have an announcement to make,” she beamed, clapping her hands excitedly as she bounced on the spot. “We’re both absolutely ecstatic to inform you all… that we’re engaged! We’re getting married!”

Felicity stared up at her in barely concealed horror. Laurel looked equally as terrified, her jaw dropping. Both Sara and Tommy burst into joyful applause. Glancing between everybody, Oliver’s head shot around as he tried to gauge how exactly he should react to this news, at first appearing happy for her mother and Quentin, but then that grin morphing into a frown of bewilderment and worry when he caught sight of Felicity’s panicked expression.

Because yes, Felicity was alarmed. She was very alarmed. She had known this day would eventually come - her mother had expressed to her on multiple occasions that she and Quentin were thinking of tying the knot, and she’d overheard a few light conversations between the cop and her mother about marriage, but the blonde hadn’t expected them to want to get married this soon.

Felicity had spluttered out an indignant, “ _What?_ ” before she even realised what she was doing.

Donna’s thrilled expression faded a little as she lowered her champagne glass. “Honey,” she said, smiling bemusedly. “Quentin and I are getting married! Isn’t that wonderful?”

Felicity just stared at her, wide eyed.

Desperate, Donna repeated, “Isn’t that wonderful, F’liss?”

She just shook her head, shocked.

Now, her mother started to look a little bit annoyed, irritation leaking into her voice as she questioned, “Aren’t you happy for us, baby? Aren’t you happy for Quentin and I?”

“I am,” Felicity answered helplessly, slumped in her seat, before muttering under her breath, “I’m just not happy for _me_.”

“Why not?” Donna asked, placing her glass down on the table. “We’re expanding our family, Felicity, you’re getting two new sisters and a new father -”

“I don’t _want_ a new father,” she burst out. “My last dad abandoned us when I was _seven_ , Mom, but that doesn’t mean I’ve forgotten him. I don’t _want_ a new dad!”

The tension that had fallen over the table could be cut with a knife. Quentin and Donna were now expressing some anger at the frosty reception to their happy news. Risking a glance towards Oliver, Felicity flinched when she saw him sitting there, taut as a wire and very slightly trembling, obviously frightened and uncertain at being caught in the middle of a family argument. She had no idea how the dragon was going to react if this escalated, and that scared her.

Donna’s voice dripped with hurt as she practically shouted at Felicity, “I’m not trying to replace your father, Felicity!”

“Well, our dad is trying to replace our mom, so that seems to be the running theme in the parent-daughter relationship today,” Laurel fumed, rising from the table with her arms crossed as she levelled a fierce glare towards her father.

Quentin’s warning growl of, “Laurel, that is _not_ -” was drowned out by Sara’s pleading to her sister to, “Please, sit down!”

“I don’t want a step-mother! I have a mom!” Laurel screamed. “She lives in Central City, and her name is Dinah, and she divorced you and left Sara and I behind! Because of _you_ , Dad!”

“Dinah Laurel Lance, that is _ENOUGH_!” Quentin bellowed, slamming his fist on the table so hard that it made Felicity jump and beside her, Oliver flinched and whimpered. Immediately, her attention was fully on the dragon. Oh god, he was not reacting yell to all the shouting. He was shaking like a leaf, his blue eyes distant and full of fear as he pulled back from the table, shrinking into his chair.

“Oh, that’s not all! So what, Tommy and I get engaged and you two decide that oh, they can’t have all the glory, we’ll have to weigh in on it too and decide to get married as well!” Laurel yelled.

“Oh my god, Laurel, _stop_ ,” Tommy gritted out, his knuckles going white around the champagne glass stem as he reined in his anger and annoyance.

“That is NOT what happened, Laurel!” Quentin shouted.

“I bet Donna was going a suggest a double wedding too!” Laurel shrieked.

Donna spluttered. “Well – I mean – that’s not –”

“Why doesn’t everybody just - sit down -” Tommy tried, his voice weak and desperate.

“SHUT UP, TOMMY!” Laurel roared at her fiancé.

“Ex _cuse me?_ ” he snapped back.

Oliver whimpered, instinctively covering his head with his arms as if anticipating getting hit, and that was when Felicity completely snapped. Leaping to her feet, she strongly called out, “Okay, that’s _enough_. Everybody _stop_.”

The occupants of the room went still. Nobody spoke. Too worried about Oliver to even care about what kind of looks her family were shooting at her right then, Felicity turned back to the dragon, her hands trembling as she reached out to try and calm him down from the panic attack he seemed to be having. His breathing was hitched as he was covering his head as much as possible with his arms so she could barely see his pale face, but his entire body was tense with fear, and he recoiled away from her every touch, making tears spring to Felicity’s eyes. God, she had done this. She had terrified him.

She had started off the argument by reacting horribly to her mother’s news, because her father leaving had traumatised her as a child, and she was subconsciously frightened at the possibility of being abandoned once again. Felicity knew it was a stupid thought, but yes, she was scared that once her mother married Quentin, she was going to leave her daughter behind and go off to live with her new family.

And because of the quarrel that had arisen due to her crippling insecurities and abandonment issues, the dragon had been triggered by all of the shouting and yelling.

“Oliver, are you okay?” she whispered, kneeling next to him. Carefully, she placed her hand on the dragon’s knee. When he didn’t react negatively, she sighed and rested her hand on his arm, rubbing her thumb in soothing circles. “Hey, look at me, mister.” His eyes were still blank and distance when he met her gaze, but at least he was actually looking at her, and not through her. “That’s better. Do you want to leave?”

He swallowed and nodded. “I don’t like it when people yell,” he murmured.

“I know,” she smiled sadly. “It’s okay. We’ll leave.”

The rest of her family looked ashamed and guilty, especially Quentin since he’d been the one to raise his voice the most, and he’d known beforehand about Oliver’s anxiety. “I’m sorry, Felicity, we shouldn’t have -” the cop tried to start.

Felicity cut him off sharply, biting out, “Well, you did.”

Sara shook her head. “Felicity…”

“I’m taking Oliver home,” she announced firmly, standing and helping Oliver to his feet. Catching him under his arm when the dragon stumbled unsteadily, Felicity shushed him gently when he flinched upon brushing up against Tommy accidentally. Her eyes landing on her distraught mother, Felicity avoided her gaze and told her, “Don’t call me for the next few days. I need… time to process things.”

“Sweetheart -” Quentin attempted.

“I can’t,” she said, her voice small. “Not at the moment. I need to take Oliver home and look after him. And then… I need… I need to think. Please don’t call me or visit.” Turning to Tommy and Sara, who both had sympathetic expressions, she added, “Call Thea if you want to get in contact with me.”

Flashing her apologetic grins, both Tommy and Sara nodded, although Tommy also added a quick ‘text me’ mime to finish. She didn’t even look at her mother and Laurel again before cautiously leading Oliver out of the room and towards the front door. The dragon was scratching his arms with his nails, gritting his teeth as though itching within his human skin, aching to turn back into dragon form, despite the fact that it would be dangerous. Felicity had just collected all of her stuff and was ready to leave when Quentin jogged up to them, his hands held out pleadingly.

“I don’t want to make trouble,” he said quickly. “Donna just mentioned that you two were dropped off by Thea Queen and her bodyguard and don’t have a lift back.”

“We can call a taxi,” she replied stiffly.

Quentin’s shoulders slumped. “Felicity, please, just…” His gaze fell upon Oliver, who was hiding himself behind the blonde and clutching her hand tightly, as if it was the only thing tethering him to the earth. “I know it was probably me raising my voice that triggered your boyfriend, and I really just want to see you two home safe. Please, Felicity. We don’t have to talk at all in the car, just let me drive you there?” He cracked a tentative smile, joking, “Won’t be as fast as an cab, but at least the ride is convenient.”

Eventually, she nodded, but only because Quentin did honestly look very guilty. She slid into the backseat of the car and tugged Oliver in alongside her, and she couldn’t help but shiver when he immediately pressed up against her, nuzzling his head against her shoulder and rumbling lowly, like a cat purring to try and get stroked. He’d done this before with her when he was in his Night Fury form, but she hadn’t anticipated he’d still do it as a human. Then again, Oliver was just reaching out for comfort, so she couldn’t judge him at all, and to be honest, it was actually pretty nice that he was so openly asking for support from her. As promised, Quentin didn’t speak at all during the journey, however once or twice he glanced into the rear view mirror to check on them. Felicity noticed that whenever the cop caught a glimpse of the two of them hugging, the blonde resting her chin on Oliver’s head, a faint smile slipped onto his lips.

Oliver was appearing a little better before by the time they arrived back at Felicity’s apartment building, some colour having returned to his cheeks and his breathing slowed, although still quite shallow. He was almost falling asleep on her shoulder. Waking him up gently by hesitantly running her fingers over the palm of his hand, she murmured to him that they were home, and he nodded in response, clambering out in a daze.

“Thank you for the ride,” Felicity said to her now official future stepfather, not looking him in the eye, her tone flat.

She turned away to lead Oliver towards the building, but then Quentin called out warily, “Felicity?”

Closing her eyes in exasperation, she wheeled back around and managed a testy sounding, “Yes?”

“Look, I really am sorry about this evening,” Quentin said sincerely, the regret clear in his hunched position. “Laurel was out of line, and it was probably a lot for Donna and I to dump on you all without warning - things got out of hand, and that’s my fault. And I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to upset Oliver.”

“I know,” Felicity answered quietly. “I’m sorry for reacting badly. I am happy for you guys, it’s just… a lot to take in.”

He managed a broken kind of smile. “It’s okay. I don’t blame you for reacting badly. You… you know that I’d never try and replace your dad, right?”

“Yeah.” She scuffed her shoe on the pavement, focusing on how Oliver’s fingers were drawing patterns over her knuckles rather than the swell of emotions within her chest urging her to cry. “Yeah, I know. It’s just - Quentin, I’m sorry, but I’m never going to be able to consider you a father figure,” she confessed, tears springing to her eyes. “It’s just - every father figure I have ever known has eventually left me and abandoned Mom and I, and you’re just _too_ nice, and I actually like you… but since I was young I’ve always associated father figures with negative feelings and I never want to feel that type of depression ever again. So I can’t - I _can’t_ see you as my dad.”

Quentin jolted his head in a nod, sadly, barely keeping it together. “Yeah, that’s - that’s understandable, Felicity. I can understand that. It’s okay. It’s fine.”

Relieved he hadn’t taken it the wrong way, Felicity gave a small nod, awkwardly saying, “I’m going to take Oliver upstairs now…”

“Yeah, of course,” the cop agreed hurriedly. “Um, text me tomorrow, let me know how he’s doing, alright? And - once again, I’m sorry about this evening.”

They headed inside, and Felicity stood at the window, watching as Quentin drove away into the darkness. Oliver pretty much collapsed down onto the couch face first straight away, not bothering to even take off his tux jacket, lying there with his legs hanging off. Chewing her lip to hide her smile at the dragon’s attitude, Felicity approached him carefully and poked him in the shoulder blade. He winced, but didn’t flinch violently, so the blonde poked him again. Groaning, Oliver slowly turned his head around to stare at her.

“You wanna get your clothes off?” she asked.

He frowned.

Realising what she’d just said, Felicity went bright red. God, would she ever be able to not say an innuendo accidentally? Embarrassed, she swiftly corrected, “Take your tux off. Not all your clothes. I don’t want you naked on my couch. I wasn’t trying to - to get you naked in front of me, or anything. Like before. Which - I wasn’t trying to get you to do.”

Taking pity on her, Oliver hugged one of the cushions to his chest as he nodded and murmured; “I think I bought some clothes to sleep in earlier.”

“Okay.” He didn’t move. “You… gonna go get them?”

Swallowing, Oliver shot huge puppy dog eyes up at her. The same puppy dog eyes that he’d always used in Night Fury form, that always got her to give in to his will. “Please can you get them?”

Felicity rolled her eyes. “Fine. Which bag is it in?”

“The blue and green striped one.”

“Useless reptile,” she muttered under her breath, as she began rifling through the pile of shopping bags to find the one that contained his sleeping clothes.

“Dragon super senses. I heard that,” Oliver called, voice muffled by the couch cushion he had just flopped back down onto.

“You were meant to.” She finally found the bag containing his sleeping gear, and gave a timid squeak as she emptied it out onto the floor - to find that the pyjamas that Thea had bought the dragon consisted of basketball shorts that were so short they probably weren’t legal in public, and a scruffy Fall Out Boy t-shirt that looked to be several sizes too small for him. “Goddammit, Thea,” she muttered. “At least I understand now what that ‘you’ll be thanking me later’ statement was about.” Raising her voice, she called out, “Okay, I found the clothes. You can use the bathroom to change in.”

A startling thump caused Felicity to whip around in concern, but it turned out it had been Oliver simply rolling off the couch onto the floor, lying there unmoving with a tired groan. Quickly ushering him into the bathroom, the blonde yanked on her own sleeping gear, which were much more modest, and she was brushing her hair out when Oliver re-appeared. He was holding his arm around his stomach awkwardly as he looked down at himself.

“I should’ve gone with Thea to get casual clothes,” he murmured, shaking his head.

Felicity’s heart stopped. “You let Thea choose _all of your clothes?_ ”

“No, Roy chose some of them as well,” he told her. “They went a bought a load of stuff during my suit fitting, not wanting to waste time. I should have checked what exactly they’d bought before giving in and coming back…”

Okay, that was somewhat reassuring. Roy wouldn’t let Thea completely humiliate Oliver by buying all of his clothes too small, too tight and too short. Although, when pawing through all of those bags, Felicity had spotted quite a few form-fitting shirts and pairs of jeans. Whilst the dragon went to sit down again, lapsing into silence, Felicity made two cups of chamomile tea for them both, as the brew often helped her wind down after a long day and helped her sleep better.

Oliver was sitting with his knees held to his chest and his chin resting on them when she returned, and she might have had a heart attack from all the bare skin he was showing if he hadn’t wrapped himself in the blanket she stored underneath one of the cushions. He looked up when she approached and settled down beside him, shuffling closer until he was pressed up warmly against her side once again, huffing a tired sigh.

“You weren’t far off when you said it was gonna be completely awful,” Oliver muttered into her shoulder, his eyes half lidded in his exhaustion.

She sighed heavily, rubbing his knee. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have dragged you into that.”

“It’s okay,” he replied. “I liked meeting your family. Sara was nice.”

“Yes, Sara was,” she agreed. “Laurel, however, was not.”

“How can you let her treat you that way?” he questioned, sounding puzzled. “She was horrible to you. And your mom.”

“I tolerate it, to be honest,” she admitted. “Despite how I might have reacted back there, I do want my mom and Quentin to be happy, and I know that if - well, now _when_ \- they get married, I’ll have to put up with Laurel for their sakes.”

The dragon frowned. “But won’t that made you miserable?”

“Yes. But it will make my mom happy. And Quentin happy. My feelings don’t really matter.”

“Of course they do,” Oliver protested, tugging on her arm. “I mean, sure you want Donna and Quentin to be happy, but that doesn’t mean you should have to suffer. You shouldn’t have to ‘tolerate’ your future step-sister when she’s being awful to you.”

“There’s really not anything I can do about it, Oliver,” Felicity muttered. “Thank you for defending me against her, by the way. I didn’t know you were capable of that level of sass.”

“You pick up a few things here and there,” he gave a lopsided smile.

“I also did not know you were capable of being a waiter,” she teased. “Is there anything you haven’t learnt?”

“Obedience,” Oliver responded darkly. “But they beat that into us, so I suppose you could say I learnt it eventually.” There was a very tense beat of silence, in which Felicity sat there, frozen, not knowing what to say, horrified once again at the thought of a tiny, mini version of Oliver being beaten repeatedly as a child to force him to follow orders. “I’m sorry,” he finally said. “I’m such a downer, aren’t I?”

“Can’t really blame you,” Felicity said. Flashing a smile at him, she praised, “You did really good tonight, Oliver.”

He perked up. “I did?”

“Yeah,” she nodded. “I was impressed. Quentin was impressed. You were perfect. Thank you for being there at my side.”

“No place I’d rather be,” he quipped back with a genuine grin.

That sent flutters through Felicity’s stomach and before she knew it, her cheeks were coloured a light pink as she ducked her head, blushing at Oliver’s words. At that point, she decided it was late enough to go to bed, and since the two of them were tired anyway, that it wouldn’t hurt. She ducked inside her bedroom to grab some spare pillows and blankets from the cupboard for Oliver. She felt kind of mean making him sleep on the couch, but it wasn’t as if she had a spare bedroom. And the idea of them sharing a bed - no, that was too weird. They didn’t even properly know each other yet. They might have complete trust in one another, but Felicity had no idea how her subconscious was going to react to having an extremely attractive man who genuinely cared about her, who she very much cared about too, sleeping next to her.

Oliver was standing over by the window, looking out over the dark street when Felicity came back, blankets and pillows piled in her arms. His broad bare forearm was braced against the wall as he gazed at the misty sky, his blue eyes wistful, and Felicity swallowed nervously as she jumped the contents of her arms onto the cushions and walked up behind him, making sure he knew that she was approaching as to not make him startle.

Frowning as his yearning expression, Felicity carefully took a hold of his hand, lacing her fingers with his to try and ground him. She was worried about him slipping into a traumatising flashback, but he didn’t seem to be in that sort of headspace, blinking as her turned to the blonde. “Do you miss it?” she questioned, leaning against the wall but keeping their hands joined. Her fingers were tingling slightly within his grip and she could hear the pulsing of blood in her ears as his eyes fixed onto hers confidently, the blue within his and the cerulean in hers clashing.

“Miss what?” he asked instantly.

“Being in your dragon form.”

“It’s barely been twenty four hours,” he scoffed, looking away. He wasn’t scoffing at her though, as it more seemed to Felicity as if he was frustrated by himself, and his own emotions.

“And yet, at the dinner, as we were leaving, you were scratching yourself so vigorously you were nearly drawing blood, because you were itching so much in this skin,” she replied softly. Squeezing his hand when Oliver looked stricken, she reassured, “It’s okay. You can talk to me. It’s alright if you miss it.”

It took Oliver a moment to compose himself enough to speak without his voice shaking. “It’s not so much hat I miss… being a dragon,” he mumbled. Exhaling with a tremor, he admitted, “I miss flying. So much. My entire life I’ve been… caged. Trapped. Never able to escape being collared and beaten and abused, or used for somebody else’s purposes. I’ve never been… free. And when I fly, I just feel… liberated. It’s just me up there, on my wings and I’m controlling my own journey - I can dip and dive and soar and do whatever I want when I’m in the sky. I mean, even when I was in captivity and being held against my will, they always let me fly. It might have been in a contained arena, and when Merlyn had me it might have been with tracker nanites running through my blood but… the adrenalin…” He ran a hand through his hair, a soft smile on his lips as he looked out longingly at the night sky. “When I was flying I could at least _pretend_ that I was free, ya know?”

Felicity nodded, her throat clogged up, desperately wiping away the tears that had sprung into her eyes but not yet fallen. God, when he described it like that, she could totally see why he missed it. “It sounds amazing,” she whispered.

“It was,” he sighed.

“But that was taken from you,” she realised. “When you were shot down. When your tail fin was ripped off. That feeling of freedom was stolen from you.” She moved closer to him, cautiously setting her other hand on his arm and turning him away from the window, so they were facing each other. He was so tall, almost a head taller than her, but she felt as if she was on equal standing with him when she spoke softly, “It’s not gone forever, Oliver. You’ll get that freedom back, as soon as Roy finished the tail fin.”

“You’re giving me that freedom back,” the dragon whispered.

“Not entirely,” she said, biting her lip. “A rider will have to control the prosthetic’s motion so you can fly properly but -”

“Felicity.” His breath stuttered, and hers got caught in her throat when he gazed down at her, his blue eyes alight with such emotion and feeling that it honestly blew her away, to know that he was opening himself up to her so much, that he was letting his barriers down and laying himself completely bare. “Like I said,” he murmured. “You’re giving me that freedom back.”

God, if he didn’t stop looking at her like that, she was going to kiss him. Right there and then. Fuck the consequences.

Before she could lean in, however, her exhale dancing across his collarbone, Oliver released her hand and gently pushed past her, moving away from the window back to the couch. Felicity tried to pass off the crushed feeling in her heart as disappointment he was pulling away again, and not because she’d really wanted to kiss him. Shaking her head forcefully, she shoved those thoughts out of her mind. No. That was wrong. She shouldn’t be wanting to kiss him. They were friends; that was all, very good friends, and Oliver was neither in a good enough place nor headspace to want to pursue romantic relations. And she should NOT want to do that with him. It was wrong.

“It’s late,” she said, clearing her throat so her voice didn’t croak. “It’s been a long day. We should get some rest.”

Oliver nodded silently, rearranging the pillows and blankets on the cushions until a sort of nest was formed, which he clambered into. Felicity snorted when he wrapped the blanket around himself so that only his ruffled, bird’s nest hair and his wide, innocent blue eyes were showing. Muttering a soft goodnight to him, the blonde checked the locks of the door and all the windows before flicking the switch of the lights off and heading into her bedroom, quietly closing the door behind her.

She’d drifted off to sleep with the random, adorable thought of the Night Fury playfully chasing a laser pointer at the front of her mind, and just as her first proper dream of the night started, involving her, Thea, Roy, Diggle and Oliver playing a game of exploding snap at a Big Belly Burger booth, she was startled awake by the sound of creaking outside her bedroom door. Blinking groggily and her mouth contorting in a massive exhausted yawn, she gazed suspiciously at the entrance to her bedroom with bleary eyes for a few minutes, very slowly dropping back off to sleep.

The next sound, a sharp clicking noise, which signified the turning of her bedroom door’s handle, jolted her awake once again, and this time she was more aware as she gazed warily around. With the Night Fury sleeping out in the living room, there was no possibly chance of an intruder, which meant that it could only be Oliver. Rubbing her eyes, Felicity glanced over at her phone. It was 3am.

“Oliver,” she called out, her voice raspy.

The door clicked open and it swung a few inches, and the dragon’s blue eyes appeared in the crack, looking down at her hesitantly. Felicity shuffled up the headboard worriedly, all traces of grogginess vanishing when she saw his eyes were bloodshot, filled with a fear that must have been left over from waking up from a nightmare.

“Hi,” Oliver whispered. “Sorry if I woke you.”

“Hey,” she smiled at him through the darkness. She could barely see anything, but Oliver probably had his night vision from his dragon form, so she knew he would appreciate her welcoming smile. “Are you okay? Can’t sleep?”

“Yeah,” he answered quietly.

“Bad dream?” she questioned sympathetically.

He nodded, eyes cast down at the floor. “I, um…” He shook his head. “Could I please come and sleep in here with you? Just on the floor. It’s - it’s a new environment and I - I don’t like being alone.”

Of course he was feeling scared. Felicity would be freaked out if she woke up from a nightmare to find herself in an unrecognisable place that she didn’t usually sleep in as well. “Hey, of course,” she murmured. “But not on the floor. No, no, no. Floors are hard and cold and bad.” Oh god, what was she doing. She’d literally insisted to herself earlier that what she was thinking right now was a bad idea. What was she _doing_? “We can share the bed.”

“No, I couldn’t… I don’t want to impose.”

“You won’t be,” she reassured. “Oliver, it’s fine. Really. We’re two adults, we can share a bed together. Totally platonically. It’s alright.” Well, she hoped it would be.

He still seemed uncertain. “Are you sure?”

“Would I have suggested it if I wasn’t?”

“You don’t understand.” He padded over to her bedside, a sad look on his face. “Sometimes when I have nightmares, I can get… violent. I could hurt you.”

“Oliver, you won’t hurt me.”

“I could,” he insisted.

“Do you trust me?” she asked, staring directly into his eyes.

He didn’t flinch at the eye contact, which was a good sign. “Yes,” he responded quietly, after a moment. “But sometimes when I have a nightmare and I initially wake up, I get confused and don’t know where I am. I might not recognise you. I could mistake you for…”

“Oliver,” she soothed, reaching out to catch his hand. He went still when her fingers brushed against his. “I know. I understand. But I promise you, if it looks as if you’re having a nightmare, I will get out of the bed. I will move away. I won’t touch you or startle you. I won’t get hurt.” She patted the edge of the bed. “Come on.”

“Are you -”

“I am sure,” she said firmly. “Now get into bed with me.” Her eyes slammed shut. “I should never speak.” When he shifted uncomfortably, he tugged his hand. “I promise you, everything will be fine. This is just to help you sleep. You won’t hurt me, you aren’t going to bother me at all. This is okay, Oliver. I swear.”

His every moment anxious and skittish, Oliver climbed into bed next to her, almost shaking as Felicity helped him under the covers. He wrapped his forearms around his pillow, cushioning it against his face, and lay there, on edge and stiff, refusing to come into contact with her. Rolling her eyes, Felicity reached out with her hand and placed it on his shoulder blade, trying to gently massage some of the tension out of his muscles. To her delight, within a few minutes, he began to relax, harsh breathing evening out and his jerky movements as he turned every so often calm and lithe. Although he still seemed quite apprehensive, he curled a little bit closer to the blonde, letting their hands touch and share some personal space. Grinning, Felicity let her fingers stroke up and down the palm of his hand, watching whilst his eyelids gradually slipped closed as he slowly succumbed to sleep restfully. They would address the bed sharing and cautious, reassuring touches in the morning, she decided. Right now, Oliver needed comfort and kind human contact, and Felicity was happy to provide that for him.

“Good night, Oliver,” she whispered.

“‘Night, F’lissty,” he murmured.

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so very much for reading! Please leave kudos and comment :)
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave kudos and comment! Any questions will be gladly answered :)
> 
> Tumblr: @alexiablackbriar13  
> Twitter: @lexiblackbriar


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